A tribute to Barry L. Zaret, MD
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Cardiology Today Editorial Board Member Barry L. Zaret, MD, MASNC, a pioneer in the field of nuclear cardiology, recently passed away, the American Society for Nuclear Cardiology announced.
Zaret, who was the Robert W. Berliner Professor Emeritus of Medicine and professor of diagnostic radiology at Yale University School of Medicine, is best known for pivotal discoveries in cardiac imaging. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology and served in that position for more than a decade.
“Dr. Zaret really was a legend in the field,” Mouaz Al-Mallah, MD, MSc, FASNC, president of the American Society for Nuclear Cardiology, told Cardiology Today. “The first thing that comes to mind are his two main papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine and the classic images. He is, in the view of many of us, the founder of the field of nuclear cardiology. No one cany deny his fine touches on the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology that allowed us to publish innovations that helped shape the field. Editors who came after him were reluctant to take on the role because he raised the bar so high. Who wants to follow Barry Zaret?”
In a tribute article published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology in November, Frans J. Th. Wackers, MD, PhD, and colleagues described Zaret as a “renowned cardiologist, clinical scientist, innovator and visionary leader of so many.”
Zaret went to New York University School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and received his cardiology training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After military service, Zaret joined the section of cardiology at Yale University in 1973. He became chief of cardiology in 1977, full professor in 1982, the first Robert W. Berliner Professor of Internal Medicine in 1984 and emeritus professor in 2010.
In what would become a pivotal paper published in NEJM in 1971, Zaret and colleagues developed the concept of imaging regional ventricular wall motion, calculating left ventricular ejection fraction by planimetry.
In a second paper published in 1973, Zaret and colleagues demonstrated the visualization of stress-induced ischemia in 43 patients by injecting potassium-43 at peak treadmill exercise for imaging the functional significance of CAD.
“Stress-induced myocardial ischemia was visualized as a radiotracer perfusion defect at exercise that was not present at rest,” Wackers and colleagues wrote. “This had never been shown before with cardiac imaging.”
Al-Mallah, who once interviewed with Zaret for a position at Yale, still vividly remembers the career advice he received.
“He told me to focus on one clinical problem and investigate it, like he did,” Al-Mallah said. “He was so determined to image the heart using nuclear isotopes. When he started, there was nothing. His use of potassium isotopes to image the heart started the field of nuclear cardiology. He taught me to follow your passions. He touched the lives of many patients through his work, through his mentees and by developing the field itself. We miss him and miss his wisdom.”
Zaret was an avid poet and had several poems published, along with a book of poetry, and often spoke of his love of literature. He was also a landscape oil painter and had several exhibitions of his work.
In an interview with Cardiology Today in 2012, Zaret spoke of his pride in helping develop the nuclear cardiology field and discussed the best advice he ever received.
“The best advice I’ve ever received was from one of my mentors, Samuel O. Thier, MD, who was the chief of medicine when I became the chief of cardiology at Yale,” Zaret said. “He said: ‘Your word is as good as any written document.’ I try to govern my administrative life by that.”
- Reference:
- Wackers FJT, et al. J Nucl Cardiol. 2022;doi:10.1007/s12350-022-03153-8.