Gillian Whalley | |
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| Citizenship | New Zealand |
| Alma mater | University of Auckland |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Echocardiography |
| Institutions | Unitec Institute of Technology, University of Otago |
| Thesis | |
Gillian Amanda Whalley is a New Zealand Professor of Clinical Sonography at the University of Otago.
Whalley first became a sonographer in 1985. She practised for five years before becoming a researcher in 1990. [1]
Her 1998 MSc Selection bias and confounding associated with echocardiographic estimation of left ventricular mass [2] was followed in 2006 by a PhD titled The role of contemporary echocardiography in the management of heart failure at the University of Auckland. [3] Whalley rose to full professorship at Unitec Institute of Technology, [4] moving to the University of Otago in 2018 [5] while maintaining an honorary position at Auckland. [6]
Whalley has been funded by the New Zealand Health Council to study the differing effects of heart disease on Māori or Pacific peoples. This was required because existing methods are based on research using American or European subjects and more diverse data is required. [4] For example, Māori and Pacific peoples have hearts that are larger on average than the baseline data from North American Caucasians, and this can make a difference when attempting to diagnose heart condition based on an enlarged heart. Whalley's research included screening 900 New Zealanders to collect information on normal heart sizes. [7] The research was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal in 2022. [8] Whalley has described the diagnosis of heart disease in New Zealand, using North American baselines, as 'systemically racist', and one of the reasons that Māori and Pacific people have higher heart disease. [9]
In 2021, Whalley was appointed Editor in Chief of the Australasian Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine . [10]
Under the name "Gillian Whalley-Torckler", and often in conjunction with her husband, photographer Darryl Torckler, Whalley has written several books of fiction and non-fiction, for children and adults. These include photo essays, creative non-fiction for children, guides to NZ marine fishes, SCUBA diving sites, and the rocky shore, and books of knitting patterns. [11]
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms, caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, and leg swelling. The shortness of breath may occur with exertion or while lying down, and may wake people up during the night. Chest pain, including angina, is not usually caused by heart failure, but may occur if the heart failure was caused by a heart attack. The severity of the heart failure is measured by the severity of symptoms during exercise. Other conditions that may have symptoms similar to heart failure include obesity, kidney failure, liver disease, anemia, and thyroid disease.
An echocardiography, echocardiogram, cardiac echo or simply an echo, is an ultrasound of the heart. It is a type of medical imaging of the heart, using standard ultrasound or Doppler ultrasound.
An ejection fraction (EF) is the volumetric fraction of fluid ejected from a chamber with each contraction. It can refer to the cardiac atrium, ventricle, gall bladder, or leg veins, although if unspecified it usually refers to the left ventricle of the heart. EF is widely used as a measure of the pumping efficiency of the heart and is used to classify heart failure types. It is also used as an indicator of the severity of heart failure, although it has recognized limitations.
Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a valvular heart disease characterized by the displacement of an abnormally thickened mitral valve leaflet into the left atrium during systole. It is the primary form of myxomatous degeneration of the valve. There are various types of MVP, broadly classified as classic and nonclassic. In severe cases of classic MVP, complications include mitral regurgitation, infective endocarditis, congestive heart failure, and, in rare circumstances, cardiac arrest.
Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is thickening of the heart muscle of the left ventricle of the heart, that is, left-sided ventricular hypertrophy and resulting increased left ventricular mass.
Valvular heart disease is any cardiovascular disease process involving one or more of the four valves of the heart. These conditions occur largely as a consequence of aging, but may also be the result of congenital (inborn) abnormalities or specific disease or physiologic processes including rheumatic heart disease and pregnancy.
Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy (TIC) is a disease where prolonged tachycardia or arrhythmia causes an impairment of the myocardium, which can result in heart failure. People with TIC may have symptoms associated with heart failure and/or symptoms related to the tachycardia or arrhythmia. Though atrial fibrillation is the most common cause of TIC, several tachycardias and arrhythmias have been associated with the disease.
Avijit Lahiri is a researcher in cardiology in the UK.
Noncompaction cardiomyopathy (NCC) is a rare congenital disease of heart muscle that affects both children and adults. It results from abnormal prenatal development of heart muscle.
Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a disorder of the heart muscle in people with diabetes. It can lead to inability of the heart to circulate blood through the body effectively, a state known as heart failure(HF), with accumulation of fluid in the lungs or legs. Most heart failure in people with diabetes results from coronary artery disease, and diabetic cardiomyopathy is only said to exist if there is no coronary artery disease to explain the heart muscle disorder.
Obstructive shock is one of the four types of shock, caused by a physical obstruction in the flow of blood. Obstruction can occur at the level of the great vessels or the heart itself. Causes include pulmonary embolism, cardiac tamponade, and tension pneumothorax. These are all life-threatening. Symptoms may include shortness of breath, weakness, or altered mental status. Low blood pressure and tachycardia are often seen in shock. Other symptoms depend on the underlying cause.
Volume overload refers to the state of one of the chambers of the heart in which too large a volume of blood exists within it for it to function efficiently. Ventricular volume overload is approximately equivalent to an excessively high preload. It is a cause of cardiac failure.
Left atrial enlargement (LAE) or left atrial dilation refers to enlargement of the left atrium (LA) of the heart, and is a form of cardiomegaly.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a form of heart failure in which the ejection fraction – the percentage of the volume of blood ejected from the left ventricle with each heartbeat divided by the volume of blood when the left ventricle is maximally filled – is normal, defined as greater than 50%; this may be measured by echocardiography or cardiac catheterization. Approximately half of people with heart failure have preserved ejection fraction, while the other half have a reduction in ejection fraction, called heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).
Tissue Doppler echocardiography (TDE) is a medical ultrasound technology, specifically a form of echocardiography that measures the velocity of the heart muscle (myocardium) through the phases of one or more heartbeats by the Doppler effect of the reflected ultrasound. The technique is the same as for flow Doppler echocardiography measuring flow velocities. Tissue signals, however, have higher amplitude and lower velocities, and the signals are extracted by using different filter and gain settings. The terms tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and tissue velocity imaging (TVI) are usually synonymous with TDE because echocardiography is the main use of tissue Doppler.
Left ventricular thrombus is a blood clot (thrombus) in the left ventricle of the heart. LVT is a common complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Typically the clot is a mural thrombus, meaning it is on the wall of the ventricle. The primary risk of LVT is the occurrence of cardiac embolism, in which the thrombus detaches from the ventricular wall and travels through the circulation and blocks blood vessels. Blockage can be especially damaging in the heart or brain (stroke).
Right heart strain is a medical finding of right ventricular dysfunction where the heart muscle of the right ventricle (RV) is deformed. Right heart strain can be caused by pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary embolism, RV infarction, chronic lung disease, pulmonic stenosis, bronchospasm, and pneumothorax.
Matire Louise Ngarongoa Harwood is a New Zealand clinical researcher and trainee general practitioner.She is an associate professor at the University of Auckland. Harwood was the 2017 New Zealand L'Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Fellow. Her expertise is in Māori health, focussed on reducing health inequity by improving indigenous health and well-being.
Arthur Mark Richards is a New Zealand physician, academic and medical researcher. He is a professor of cardiology and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and a professor of medicine and founder of the Christchurch Heart Institute at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he holds the National Heart Foundation (NZ) Chair of Cardiovascular Studies.
Roberto Ferrari is an Italian cardiologist who currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor at the University of Ferrara, where besides he was the chair of the Cardiology in the School of Medicine until the 2019-2020 academic year.
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