The Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (SCCT) will honor Dr. Michael Blaha, PhD, with one of its top awards for his pioneering efforts in coronary artery disease research at its annual scientific meeting in Las Vegas on Friday, July 15.
The 2022 Arthur S. Agatston Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Award will be presented to Blaha for his contributions in developing new strategies to optimize cardiovascular disease risk factors.
Specifically, the SCCT noted Blaha's contributions to the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) study, a medical research study involving more than 6,000 men and women from six communities in the U.S. Blaha developed the MESA tool for calculating risk probabilities based on coronary artery calcium scores.
Blaha is a cardiologist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and director of clinical research at the university's Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease.
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
