Nabil E. El-Sherif, MD, 2010 Pioneer in Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology

Biography

Nabil E. El-Sherif, MD graduated from Cairo University School of Medicine in 1960 and received his postgraduate training at Cairo University Hospitals and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, FL. In 1978 he became a Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the State University of New York (SUNY), Downstate Medical Center and in 1984 became the director of its Cardiology Division. Currently, he is the director of the Cardiology Division at the New York Harbor Veterans Affairs Health Care Center, Brooklyn Campus.

Dr. El-Sherif is an internationally recognized expert in the field of basic and clinical cardiac electrophysiology, and in 2010 was recognized with the Heart Rhythm Society's Pioneer in Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology award. He has published more than 430 peer-reviewed papers, reviews, and book chapters and has authored and co-authored eight books. He is a member of the editorial board of several national and international journals and served on the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, and Veterans Affairs Central Office research study groups. His research has been supported consistently by federal and non-federal grants for the last 34 years and has dealt with the link between molecular biology, ion channel physiology, cellular electrophysiology and clinical presentations of cardiac arrhythmias.

Dr. El-Sherif has made several seminal contributions to understanding electrophysiological mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, particularly in myocardial ischemia/infarction in particular. His early studies on the canine post-infarction model resulted in the description of the figure-of-eight reentrant circuit. This was later confirmed in clinical studies where surgical or electrode catheter ablation of the slow common pathway of the figure-of-eight circuit was utilized as a therapeutic measure in appropriate patients. His experimental studies in the canine pericarditis atrial flutter model contributed to identifying the atrial flutter circuit isthmus by showing that ablation of the slow zone of the circuit between the inferior vena cava and tricuspid ring resulted in termination of atrial flutter. This became the basis of the successful technique of radiofrequency ablation of atrial flutter circuit in the clinical setting. His more recent studies have provided significant understanding of the electrophysiological mechanism of torsades de pointes arrhythmias in both the congenital and acquired long QT syndrome, as well as the electrophysiological basis of the use of T-wave alternans as a marker of susceptibility to malignant ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Dr El-Sherif also contributed toward introducing the technique of signal averaged electrocardiography to clinical practice as a non-invasive marker of ventricular electrical vulnerability. His recent basic research involves studies of post-infarction signal transduction pathways as targets of novel therapeutic interventions in post-infarction patients.