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Research Interests:

I was born in the village of S. Maria la Bruna situated under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, near Pompei, Italy. I got my degree in Medicine and Surgery in 1993 at the University-Hospital “Federico II” in Naples. I completed my 5-year specialist training in Cardiac Surgery at the same University-Hospital in 1999.

I was seconded in 1997 for 1 year of my specialist training to the Bristol Heart Institute. This was a fantastic year, a revealing voyage of discovery, which turned out to be the cornerstone of my professional life. I returned to Bristol at the end of 1999 to stay. Here, I was appointed as Consultant Senior Lecturer in Cardiac Surgery in 2002, promoted to Reader in 2006, and to Professor of Cardiac Surgery & Translational Research in 2009 by the University of Bristol.

I am an internationally respected researcher. Current research focus includes beating heart coronary surgery, myocardial and lung protection, stem cells for myocardial repair, diabetes mellitus, and innovative surgical approaches. I maintain a busy clinical practice (50% of my job plan; 160-170 operations per year including emergencies).

My mission remains to produce world-class translational research and teaching for the benefit of patients. Over the years I have acted at the critical interface between clinical academics, basic scientists and clinicians to remove old barriers. I have been a pivotal team member for the awards to the BHI/UoB of the “Surgical Team of Year” in 2005 by Hospital Doctors (beating heart surgery), the Wolfson Foundation £1.5m grant for a 3T MRI for CRIC (imaging), and the Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) in Cardiovascular” by NIHR in 2008 (£5.4m).

Higher Education

Professional Experiences

Publications

I have a total of > 200 publications including 95 PubMed censed articles in international peer reviewed journals including Circulation (4 articles, all as first author), Lancet (1 paper as last author), Eur Heart J (2 papers as first author), J Am Coll Cardiol (3 papers as first author), J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg (7 paper, of which 2 as first and 1 as last author), Ann Thorac Surg (19 papers, of which 10 as first author and 3 as last author). He also has 6 book chapters, 18 Reviews and Editorials, 24 Other Publications (Letters, Case reports & How to do it), 20 referred Conference Contributions, >90 not referred Conference Contributions, and > 30 reports in the media or internet).

My academic work has inspired others as reflected by the total number of citations of my referred Academic Journal Papers (> 2,200) and is of outstanding originality (total impact factor of my refereed papers is >360.

Selected recent publications includes:

Contribution to jointly authored work

** Leading or significant contribution (>70%) (largely in clinical design, conceptual, interpretation of results, supervisory and writing terms). *Collaborative contribution

  1. **Ascione R, Madeddu P. Risk and benefit of CD133+ progenitors. Circ Res(9.721). 2009;105(2):e2.
  2. **Venturini A, Ascione R, Lin H, Polesel E, Angelini GD, Suleiman MS. The importance of myocardial amino acids during ischemia and reperfusion in dilated left ventricle of patients with degenerative mitral valve disease. Mol Cell Biochem(1.7)  . 2009;330(1-2):63-70.
  3. **GD. Angelini, L Culliford, D Smith, M Hamilton, G Murphy, R Ascione, et al. Effects of on- and off-pump coronary artery surgery on graft patency, survival and quality of life: long term follow-up of two randomised controlled trials. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg(3.354)2009;137:295-303.
  4. *Kränkel N, Katare RG, Siragusa M, Barcelos LS ,Campagnolo P, Mangialardi G, Fortunato O,Spinetti G, Tran N, Zacharowski K, Wojakowski W , Mroz I, Herman A, Manning Fox JE, MacDonald PE, Schanstra JP, Bascands JL, Ascione R, Angelini G, Emanueli C, Madeddu P. Role of Kinin B2 Receptor Signaling in the Recruitment of Circulating Progenitor Cells with Neovascularization Potential. Circ Res(9.721)  200821;103:1335-43
  5. **Ascione R, Rogers CA, Rajakaruna C, Angelini GD. Inadequate blood glucose control is associated with in-hospital mortality and morbidity in diabetic and nondiabetic patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Circulation(12.755)2008;118:113-23.
  6. **R Ascione, MS Suleiman, G Angelini. Retrograde hotshot cardioplegia in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy undergoing aortic valve replacement. Ann Thorac Surg(2.022) 2008;85:454-8
  7.  **C Rajakaruna, C Rogers, C Suranimala, GD Angelini, R Ascione. The effect of diabetes mellitus on patients undergoing coronary surgery: a risk-adjusted analysis. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg(3.354) 2006,132:802-10.
  8. **R Ascione, S Talpahewa, C Rajakaruna, et al. Splanchnic organ injury during coronary surgery with or without cardiopulmonary bypass: a randomised controlled trial. Ann Thorac Surg(2.022)2006;81:97-103.
  9. ** CA Rogers, GD Angelini, LA Culliford, R Capoun, R Ascione. Coronary surgery in patients with pre-existing chronic atrial fibrillation: early and mid-term clinical outcome. Ann Thorac Surg(2.022) 2006;81:1676-82.
  10. **R Ascione, A Ghosh, BC Reeves, J Arnold, M Potts, A Shah, GD Angelini. Retinal and cerebral microembolisation during coronary artery bypass surgery: a randomized controlled trial. Circulation (12.755) 2005;112:3833-8.
  11. **C Rajakaruna, C A Rogers, G D Angelini, R Ascione. Risk factors for and economic implication of prolonged ventilation post cardiac surgery. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg(3.354) 2005;130:1270-7.
  12. **R Ascione, A Ghosh, C Rogers, et al. In-hospital patients exposed to clopidogrel prior CABG: a word of caution. Ann Thorac Surg(2.022)2005;79:1210-6.
  13. **Ascione R, Reeves BC, Santo K, Khan N, Angelini GD. Predictors of new malignant ventricular arrhythmias following coronary surgery: a case control study. J Am Coll Cardiol(11.0542004;43:1630-8.
  14. **Ascione R, Reeves BC, Seehra H, Taylor FC, Angelini GD. Beating Heart Against Cardioplegic Arrest Studies (BHACAS 1 and 2): quality of life at mid-term follow-up in two randomised controlled trials. Eur Heart J (7.924) 2004;25:765-70.
  15. **Reeves BC, Ascione R, Chamberlain MH, Angelini GD. Effect of body mass index on early outcome in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery. J Am Coll Cardiol(11.054) 2003; 42: 668-76.
  16. **SP Talpahewa, R Ascione, GD Angelini, TA Lovell. Cerebral cortical oxygenation changes during OPCAB surgery.Ann Thorac Surg(2.022) 2003; 76: 1516-22; discussion 1522.
  17. **JY Jeremy, N Shukla, A Day, I Wan, SP Talpahewa, GD Angelini, R Ascione. Sustained increases of plasma homocysteine, copper and serum caeruloplasmin following coronary artery bypass grafting. Ann Thorac Surg(2.022)  2002;74:1553-7.
  18. **R Ascione, BC Reeves, K Rees, GD Angelini. Effectiveness of on- and off-pump coronary bypass grafting in overweight and obese patients. Circulation(12.755) 2002;106:1764-70.
  19. **GD Angelini, FC Taylor, BC Reeves, R Ascione. Early and mid-term outcome after off-pump and on-pump surgery in Beating Heart Against Cardioplegic Arrest Studies (BHACAS 1 and 2): a pooled analysis of two randomised controlled trials. Lancet(28.638) 2002;359:1194-99
  20. **R. Ascione, M Caputo, Gomes WJ, Lotto AA, A.J Bryan, G. D. Angelini M-S Suleiman. Myocardial injury in hypertrophic hearts of patients undergoing aortic valve surgery using cold or warm blood cardioplegia. Eur J Cardio-Thoracic Surg(2.011)2002;21:440-6.
  21. *KHH Lim, M Caputo, R Ascione, J Wild, R West, GD Angelini, AJ Bryan. Prospective randomised comparison of CarboMedics and St Jude Medical bileaflet mechanical heart valve prostheses: an interim report. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg(3.354)  2002,123:21-32.

Funded Projects, Fellowships, Scholarships

As Pi or Co-PI I have a total of 14 between Project Grants, 1 Senior Lecturer Fellowship, 2 Clinical Academic Fellowships, and 1 Scholarship for a total approximately of £9m.

Awards, Honors & Distinctions

Filed Patents: 1

International Activity

Editorial Boards

J of Cardiac Surg (from 2005), and Cochrane Heart Group (from 2008).

International working groups:

Managerial activity:

International

Teaching

I am committed to providing effective teaching to postgraduate students (4 current supervisions), junior doctors and trainees under my supervision. The scope of my interest has been greatly extended by my successful bid for two Walport Academic Clinical Fellowship posts in Cardiothoracic Surgery to be appointed in 2009 and 2010 and by my membership on the Faculty Quality Assessment Team (FQAT) Committee with completion of six sites visits/reports between 2006-09 to assess quality of teaching.

As member of the EACTS Academy I teach on international courses (including live demonstrations) in areas of my clinical interest.

Clinical activity

I believe my patients and their families have benefited from my desire to provide an innovative, research- and governance-based clinical service. Examples include the work on beating heart coronary surgery (almost 100% of my practice; 70% @ BHI; 25% worldwide) leading to the “Surgical Team of Year 2005” national prize by Hospital Doctors in 2006 and the award of “Clinical Audit Oscar 2006” by UBHT Audit Committee for the best audit project across the trust.

My clinical activity is busy and achievenments includes:

  1. 3-4 open-heart operations per week, on call for emergencies 1:12, and 2 out-patient clinics per month
  2. Performing at half the national mortality rate for both coronary and all inclusive surgery to date (in total in my career I have performed > 1600 adult cardiac procedures (overall mortality 1.6%) plus >400 thoracic procedures (overall mortality 0.5%) as first operator.
  3. Established expertise for innovative surgical techniques including beating heart coronary surgery, mitral valve repair surgery, ablation of AF, and surgery for end-stage ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Web links:

http://www.ctsnet.org/home/rascione

http://heartsurgery.healthcarecommission.org.uk/Unit.aspx?ID=RA701&OT=2