Faculty

Prof. Lee is an academic cardiologist and physician-scientist. He specialises in cardiac imaging with particular interest in echocardiography. His main research interests are heart valve disease, heart failure, advanced techniques in echocardiography (3D, strain, and contrast), and the application of cardiac imaging in guiding valvular surgery and structural heart intervention. He is particularly keen in collaborating with engineers to innovate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular disease. In patients with dilated cardiomyopathy undergoing mitral valve repair, he established the importance of distal anterior leaflet tethering in the mechanism of recurrence of functional mitral regurgitation. Based on his work, the echocardiographic parameter of distal anterior leaflet angle has been officially incorporated into the position statement from the European Society of Cardiology and the recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography on cardiovascular surgery and valvular heart disease.

More recently, Prof. Lee and his group discovered the mechanistic link between mitral annular saddle shape and progression of degenerative mitral regurgitation using a novel technology called real-time 3D echocardiography. He hypothesized that the mitral valve sustain physical stress imposed by the ventricle by assuming a hyperbolic paraboloid (saddle-shape) surface during systole, analogous to architectural design to bear weight (e.g. the Canadian Scotiabank Saddledome). Loss of the annular saddle shape predispose to valvular degeneration. His novel finding was accompanied by positive editorial comments in Circulation and has been widely cited by other researchers.

Prof. Lee has published over 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Circulation, European Heart Journal, Journal of American College of Cardiology, and Nature: Cardiology Review. He is the editor and reviewer of over 10 peer-reviewed medical journals, and the coordinator of the Echocardiography Chapter of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology. He is a frequent invited speaker and faculty member in international scientific conferences organised by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography, the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, and the Asian-Pacific Association of Echocardiography. He has been awarded numerous research awards including the European Society of Cardiology Young Investigator Award, the State Ministry of Education First-Class Award in Technology Advancement, the CUHK Research Excellence Award, the Hong Kong College of Physicians Distinguished Research Awards (3 times) and the Richard Yu Lectureship for his distinguished research achievement as a young clinical scientist.

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