The Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology - the Society of Interventional Radiology's flagship publication - together with the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation, announced the inaugural JVIR Editor's Awards for Best Research Papers, a joint awards program.
Principal author Jeet Minocha, M.D., an interventional radiologist at the department of radiology, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill., accepted the JVIR Editor's Award for outstanding clinical research paper for "Improving Inferior Vena Cava Filter Retrieval Rates: The Impact of a Dedicated Inferior Vena Cava Filter Clinic." Sanjay Misra, M.D., an interventional radiologist at the Mayo Clinic and Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Rochester, Minn., accepted the JVIR Editor's Award for outstanding laboratory investigation paper for "Hypoxia Induces a Phenotypic Switch of Fibroblasts to Myofibroblasts Through a MMP-2/TIMP Mediated Pathway: Implications for Venous Neointimal Hyperplasia in Hemodialysis Access." The awards were presented at SIR's 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, Ill.
"These scientific articles highlight very current and highly relevant areas of research in interventional radiology and vascular disease," said Ziv J Haskal, M.D., FSIR, the journal's editor-in-chief. "This year, the Journal of Vascular Interventional Radiologyinaugurated two annual awards: for outstanding clinical research paper and outstanding laboratory investigation. These awards bear a monetary prize, granted by the SIR Foundation as acknowledgment of the essential, best-in-class research that is conducted in interventional radiology and published in JVIR, the global journal of the specialty," explained Haskal, who is also professor of radiology and surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and vice chair of strategic development and chief of vascular and interventional radiology, image-guided therapy and interventional oncology at the University of Maryland Medical Center, both in Baltimore. The articles were selected after a careful review of all manuscripts published in 2010.
"The SIR Foundation felt it was important to provide these awards to recognize the significant contributions to clinical and pre-clinical research produced by the outstanding physician scientists in the interventional radiology community," stated Gordon McLennan, M.D., FSIR, SIR Foundation chair and an interventional radiologist with the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.
"The manuscript by Minocha and his colleagues is a timely one, arriving ahead of a national call for awareness by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding retrievable caval filters and the need for practitioner focus on their removal when no longer needed," said Haskal. The paper "demonstrates how effective a dedicated effort in this area can be - a great model and service to patients," he noted.
"Misra and his co-authors delved into the basic cell biology and mediators of tissue proliferation in dialysis patients," explained Haskal. "The U.S. population is aging, and the number of patients requiring hemodialysis continues to grow rapidly. It is estimated that more than 120,000 interventions per year are performed in these patients to keep their vascular access functioning, often because of intimal hyperplasia. A better basic understanding of it can only lead to improved future treatments, better quality of life, fewer interventions and lower health system costs," he said.
Recipients of 2010 JVIR Distinguished Reviewer Awards include Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, M.D., National Institutes of Health in Rockville, Md.; Kyung J. Cho, M.D., FSIR, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Marcelo Guimaraes, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. The 2010 JVIR Distinguished Fellow Reviewer Award recipients included Tami C. Carrillo, M.D., University of Illinois, Chicago, and Jay Toby Morrow, M.D., Ph.D., University of Colorado, Aurora.
