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Riham El Khouli, MD, PhD

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800 Rose St

Positions

  • Associate Professor of Radiology
  • Chief, Division of Nuclear Medicine & Molecular imaging
  • Director, Radiotheranostics

College Unit(s)

Other Affiliation(s)
  • Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging

Biography and Education

Biography

Fellowship-trained, double board certified (ABR and ABNM), academic nuclear radiologist with over two decades of clinical and research experience. My research initially focused on the evaluation and improvement of various advanced MRI sequences and techniques such as dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI, Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), and 1H MR Spectroscopy in breast cancer.

During my training in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging (NM&MI) and dedicated PET/CT fellowship, my passion toward molecular imaging and PET/CT grew and my research focus was directed toward molecular imaging techniques and new innovative radiopharmaceuticals. 

Shortly after I joined the department of radiology at the University of Kentucky I was appointed as the Medical Director of Research in the department and dedicate my effort to promote research in the department.

I’m collaborating with multiple prominent Principle Investigators in Markey Cancer Center, Neuroscience Institute, Sanders-Brown Center for Aging and the magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center (MRISC) in multiple large research projects focusing on Innovative Radiopharmaceutical therapies targeting various tumors,  Combination of Radiopharmaceutical therapies with radiosensitizers to potentiate the effect of these therapies.  I'm also heavily involved as Co-I in multiple clinical trials involving patients with parkinsonism, dementia and aging such as “Exploring dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography quantification   as a measure of disease progression in idiopathic Parkinson's disease”, INCREASE, ADNI3, LEARN and the Supplement for Active Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center P30, among others. I was responsible for the PET/CT portion of the study including facilitating our PET/CT center approval as a study site, overseeing acquisition, quality control and problem solving as well as image analysis and quantification for some of them. Our research projects focused on novel PET radiopharmaceuticals including 18F-FDG, 18F-Amyvid, and 18F-AV-1451 (Tau tracer). Both our site and I are approved site and reader for the international multi-center trial (Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning-IDEAS).

As the Director of Radiotheranostics, I oversee our clinical and research parenteral radiopharmaceutical therapy programs, which currently include 177Lu-dotatate for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) patients, 177Lu-PSMA for prostate cancer patients, and 131I-MIBG (Azedra) for metastatic pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma, and neuroblastoma patients, as well as numerous ongoing and in-progress investigational radiopharmaceuticals.

Education

MD Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt PhD Diagnostic Radiology Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt MSc Diagnostic Radiology Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt RESIDENCY Radiology, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt Nuclear Medicine, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore FELLOWSHIP Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland Clinical Research, NIH-Office of Clinical Research Training and Medical Education, Bethesda, Maryland American Board of Nuclear Medicine

Selected Publications

1. El-Hamid AA, El-Serafi A, El Khouli RH, Rakha I. Sonographic Findings of Common Painful Shoulder Problems. SCU-MJ. 2003;6(1):41-9. 2. El Khouli RH, Geschwind JF, Bluemke DA, Kamel IR. Solitary Fibrous Tumor of the Liver: Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evaluation and Treatment with Transarterial Chemoembolization. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 2008;32:769-71. 3. El Khouli RH, Barker P, Macura KJ, Jacobs MA, Elkady LA, Vogel-Claussen J, Bluemke DA. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Guided Vacuum Assisted Breast Biopsy: A Phantom and Patient Evaluation of Targeting Accuracy. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Aug;30(2):424-9. 4. El Khouli RH, Macura KJ, Jacobs MA, Khalil TH, Kamel I, Dwyer A, Bluemke DA. Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast: Quantitative Method for Kinetic Curve Type Assessment. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2009 Oct;193(4): W295-300. 5. El Khouli RH, Macura KJ, Barker P, Habba MR, Jacobs MA, Bluemke DA. Relationship of Temporal Resolution to Diagnostic Performance for Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Nov;30(5): 999–1004. 6. El Khouli RH, Jacobs MA, Mezban S, Huang P, Kamel I, Macura KJ, Bluemke DA. Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Improves the Diagnostic Accuracy of Conventional 3.0-T Breast MRI. Radiology. 2010 Jul;256(1):64-73. 7. Freed M, de Zwart JA, Loud JT, El Khouli RH, Myers KJ, Greene MH, Duyn JH, Badano A. An Anthropomorphic Phantom for Quantitative Evaluation of Breast MRI. Med Phys. 2011 Feb;38(2):743-53. 8. El Khouli RH, Macura KJ, Kamel I, Jacobs MA, Bluemke DA. 3-T Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast: Pharmacokinetic Parameters versus Conventional Kinetic Curve Analysis. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2011 Dec;197(6):1498–505. 9. Türkbey B, Aras Ö, Karabulut N, Tuncay Turgut A, Akpınar E, Alibek S, Pang A, Mehmet Ertürk Ş, El Khouli RH, Bluemke DA, Choyke PL. Diffusion-Weighted MRI for Detecting and Monitoring Cancer: A Review of Current Applications in Body Imaging. Diagn Interv Radiol. 2012 Jan-Feb;18(1):46-59. 10. Haruoni AH, Hossain J, El Khouli RH, Matsuda KM, Bluemke DA, Osman NF, Jacobs MA. Strain-Encoded Breast MRI in Phantom and ex vivo Specimens with Histological Validation: Preliminary Results. Med Phys. 2012 Dec;39(12):7710-8. 11. El Khouli RH, Macura KJ, Kamel IR, Bluemke DA, Jacobs MA. The Effect of Applying Breast Compression in Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MR Imaging. Radiology. 2014 Jul;272(1):79-90; Epub Ahead of Print 2014 Mar 12. 12. Ibrahim WG, El Khouli RH, Abd-Elmoniem KZ, Raj Matta J, McAreavey D, Gharib AM. Optimization of Free-Breathing Whole-Heart 3-Dimensional Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 3 Tesla to Identify Coronary Vein Anatomy and to Compare With Multidetector Computed Tomography. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 2014 Nov-Dec;38(6):941-8. 13. Antoniou AJ, Raja S, El Khouli RH, Mena E, Lodge MA, Wahl RJ, Clarke JO, Pasricha P, Ziessman HA. Comprehensive Radionuclide Esophagogastrointestinal Transit Study: Methodology, Reference Values, and Initial Clinical Experience. J Nucl Med. 2015 May;56(5):721-7. 14. Muniyappa R, Noureldin RA, Abd-Elmoniem KZ, El Khouli RH, Matta JR, Hamimi A, Ranganath S, Hadigan C, Nieman LK, Gharib AM. Personalized Statin Therapy and Coronary Atherosclerotic Plaque Burden in Asymptomatic Low/Intermediate-Risk Individuals. Cardiorenal Med. 2018;8(2):140-50. Epub Ahead of Print 2018 Mar 26. 15. Mirpour S, Turkbey EB, Marashdeh W, El Khouli R, Subramaniam RM. Impact of DAT-SPECT on Management of Patients Suspected of Parkinsonism. Clin Nucl Med. 2018 Oct;43(10):710-4. 16. Kapoor H, Elashery AR, El Khouli R, Zagurovskaya M. Accessory Hepatic Caval Foraminal Herniation Mimicking a Right Atrial Mass: Non-invasive Approach to Prospective Diagnosis. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2019 Mar;12(3):e008765. 17. Yamasaki T, El Khouli R, Amato RS, Slevin J. Kufor-Rakeb Syndrome with Prominent Dystonia and New Mutations in ATP13A2 Gene in Two Siblings. Neurology. 2019 May;92(15 Supplement):P4.8-022. 18. Moga DC, Beech B, Abner E, Schmitt F, El Khouli R, Martinez A, Eckmann L, Huffmyer M, George R, Jicha G. INtervention for Cognitive Reserve Enhancement in Delaying the Onset of Alzheimer’s Symptomatic Expression (INCREASE), a Randomized Controlled Trial: Rationale, Study Design, and Protocol. Trials. 2019 Dec 30;20(1):806. 19. Parekh VS, Macura KJ, Harvey S, Kamel I, El Khouli R, Bluemke DA, Jacobs MA. Multiparametric Deep Learning Tissue Signatures for Radiological Biomarkers of Breast Cancer: Preliminary Results. Med Phys. 2020 Jan;47(1):75-88. 20. Finlin BS, Memetimin H, Zhu B, Confides AL, Vekaria HJ, El Khouli RH, Johnson ZR, Westgate PM, Chen J, Morris AJ, Sullivan PG, Dupont-Versteegden EE, Kern PA. The β3 Adrenergic Receptor Agonist Mirabegron Improves Glucose Homeostasis in Obese, Insulin-resistant Humans. J Clin Invest. 2020 May 1;130(5):2319-31. 21. Chauhan A, El-Khouli R, Waits T, Agrawal R, Siddiqui F, Tarter Z, Horn M, Weiss H, Oates E, Evers B. Mark, Anthony L. Post FDA Approval Analysis of 200 Gallium-68 DOTATATE Imaging: A Retrospective Analysis in Neuroendocrine Tumor Patients. Oncotarget. 2020;11:3061-8. 22. Ragab A, Wu J, Ding X, Clark A, Mischen B, Chauhan A, Oates ME, Anthony L, El Khouli R. Ga-68 DOTATATE PET/CT: The Optimum Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) Internal Reference. Acad Radiol 2020; in press. 23. Jacobs MA, Umbricht CB, Parekh VS, El Khouli RH, Cope L, Macura KJ, Harvey S, Wolff AC. Integrated Multiparametric Radiomics and Informatics System for Characterizing Breast Tumor Characteristics with the Oncotype DX Gene Assay. Cancers. 2020 Sep 27;12(10),2772.