Yu Kataoka1, Jin Ye Yeo2
1Cardiovascular Department, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan; 2CDT Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company
Correspondence to: Jin Ye Yeo. CDT Editorial Office, AME Publishing Company. Email: editor@thecdt.org
This interview can be cited as: Kataoka Y, Yeo JY. Meeting the Editorial Board Member of CDT: Dr. Yu Kataoka. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther. 2025. Available from: https://cdt.amegroups.org/post/view/meeting-the-editorial-board-member-of-cdt-dr-yu-kataoka.
Expert introduction
Dr. Yu Kataoka (Figure 1) graduated from Sapporo Medical University in 1997. He completed his Internal Medicine and Cardiology training at Sapporo Medical University Hospital and National Cardiovascular Center. He was involved in IVUS clinical trial and plaque imaging projects at Cleveland Clinic and South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute. He currently works as a chief consultant of the Cardiovascular Department at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.
His research focuses on non-invasive and invasive plaque imaging to evaluate mechanisms promoting atheroma progression, regression, and instability. He was a 2003 Scientific Session of American Heart Association poster finalist and a 2014 Annual Congress of European Society of Cardiology’s best poster presenter. He has published over 50 manuscripts, two book chapters, and 50 abstracts in leading Cardiology journals.
Figure 1 Dr. Yu Kataoka
Interview
CDT: What drove you into the field of cardiology, and subsequently focus your research on plague imaging?
Dr. Kataoka: When I started my residency in internal medicine at Sapporo Medical University, I experienced acute coronary syndrome (ACS) cases that received percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Since PCI dramatically improved the condition of ACS patients, I decided to become an interventional cardiologist. In Japan, intravascular imaging is covered by national health insurance, and therefore, this modality is frequently used during PCI. In addition, a variety of modalities has become available since 2005, such as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), virtual histology IVUS (VH-IVUS), angioscopy, and optical coherence tomography (OCT). These opportunities attracted me to do clinical research about plaques with intravascular imaging.
CDT: Could you explain the importance of plague imaging research and how it contributes to understanding atheroma progression and instability?
Dr. Kataoka: Plaque imaging enables us to elucidate 1) the mechanism of atherosclerosis, 2) therapeutic targets, 3) future outcomes, and 4) the efficacy of medical and interventional therapies. These aspects of intravascular imaging have the potential to improve patients’ outcomes. Prof. Nissen from Cleveland Clinic has conducted serial intravascular imaging studies to evaluate the efficacy of novel agents on atherosclerosis. Then, Prof. Nicholls continued serial imaging studies and expanded our knowledge of plaque biology in vivo. I have been involved in these projects since 2010. By using multi-modality imaging such as IVUS, OCT, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), and computed tomography, clinical characteristics and factors causing plaque progression and instability have been reported. As such, imaging of plaques is important to help physicians achieve better outcomes.
CDT: Could you provide a brief overview of the recent advancements in plague imaging? What are some examples that have significantly impacted your work or hold significant promise?
Dr. Kataoka: Research using multi-modality imaging has increased. In my experience, NIRS/IVUS imaging provides information about both plaque quantity and quality in vivo. This imaging tool has been shown to predict future cardiac events and test novel agents. NIRS-derived lipidic plaque measure has been pathophysiologically validated. Currently, I am conducting a multi-center NIRS/IVUS registry in Japan (REASSURE-NIRS). This registry has already published papers that focused on the pathophysiology of the disease, patients’ outcomes, and PCI procedures. In the future, I will collaborate with foreign sites to further expand this registry.
CDT: What are some gaps in plague imaging research that remain to be explored?
Dr. Kataoka: Plaque hemorrhage is one of the interesting fields that requires more research. Currently, intravascular imaging has a limited ability to detect this plaque phenotype. My fellow and I employed non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate plaque hemorrhage. This data will be presented in 2025.
CDT: Could you share with us some of the ongoing projects you are currently involved in? What do you hope to achieve with these projects?
Dr. Kataoka: I am conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT): PEMACORE study (jRCTs031210067), which investigates the efficacy of pemafibrate on coronary atheroma. PEMACORE is expected to elucidate whether pemafibrate has the benefit of modulating atherosclerosis. I am the principal investigator for two multi-center registries: REASSURE-NIRS (NCT04864171) and ISCAD-CATCH. As mentioned above, REASSURE-NIRS is a multi-center study collecting patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who received NIRS/IVUS-guided PCI. This registry will collaborate with foreign sites. ISCAD-CATCH focuses on idiopathic spontaneous coronary artery dissection. I am trying to build the ISCAD-CATCH registry as a major data of ISCAD in the Asian/Pacific region.
CDT: How was your experience as an Editorial Board Member of CDT?
Dr. Kataoka: As an editorial board member, I was able to learn how to improve the quality of the journal and attract more readers. This experience is quite important for me to further motivate myself to do research activities and education.
CDT: As the Editorial Board Member, what are your expectations for CDT?
Dr. Kataoka: I am expecting to become CDT as one of the major journals in the future. To achieve this goal, we need to inform CDT as a sophisticated cardiology journal.