Edward Y. Lee

Dr. Edward Lee’s clinical expertise and innovations have been achieved by successfully combining his clinical research and teaching in the field of pediatric thoracic imaging to improve the ability of radiologists to non-invasively diagnose a variety of pediatric thoracic anomalies and abnormalities particularly with multidetector CT (MDCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). His role as the Chief of Thoracic Imaging Division and Director of MRI in the Departments of Radiology has provided him with the opportunity to develop a unique niche in the field of pediatric thoracic imaging - an area arguably underdeveloped both in terms of technologic innovation and patient therapies.

His primary research activities have focused on the development and application of advanced CT and MRI imaging methods, aimed at improving diagnostic capabilities, therapeutic options and patient outcomes in pediatric patients with various anomalies and abnormalities of the large airways, lungs and mediastinal vessels. Dr. Edward Lee has extensively researched MDCT in order to evaluate pediatric patients with congenital mediastinal vascular and lung anomalies with 2D and 3D imaging. His publications as a first author on this topic were among the first in the medical literature to scientifically evaluate the efficacy of this technique in diagnosing pediatric patients with congenital mediastinal vascular and lung anomalies. Dr. Edward Lee’s work helped to establish 2D and 3D imaging with MDCT as a standard of care for the imaging evaluation of children with various congenital mediastinal vascular and lung anomalies.

He has also developed and introduced a new MDCT technique, which has become the primary non-invasive imaging method to assess dynamic central airway diseases such as tracheobronchomalacia in infants and children  By showing that MDCT has comparable accuracy to bronchoscopy, this work has had an important clinical impact in both radiology and pulmonary medicine by obviating invasive procedures such as bronchoscopy in pediatric patients for assessing tracheobronchomalacia. He has written the techniques and guidelines related to the clinical use of dynamic MDCT for evaluating tracheobronchomalacia in infants and children.

Furthermore, Dr. Edward Lee is acknowledged as the first investigator to evaluate pulmonary embolism in pediatric patients with MDCT. His work on this topic has provided seminal information regarding direct and indirect CT imaging findings, role of 2D imaging for accurate diagnosis, and clinically valuable risk factor assessment for pulmonary embolism in pediatric patients, which helps facilitate prompt diagnosis and optimal patient care.

In addition to Dr. Lee’s work on MDCT, his current work is in testing the technical feasibility and clinical applicability of MRI using hyperpolarized gases (e.g., 3He) and innovative motion-robust-high-resolution MR technique to better visualize the central airways and lungs, which is supported by research grants from the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR), Association of University Radiologists and GE Health Care (GERRAF) and the Society of Thoracic Radiology (STR).