Atif Qasim, MD, MS
Associate Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

He earned his M.S./B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Yale University and earned his M.D. degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his medical internship, residency, chief residency and cardiology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he also served as chief resident. During his cardiology fellowship, Dr. Qasim received advanced training in multimodality imaging and earned a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology. He joined the University of California, San Francisco cardiology faculty in 2012.

Clinical Interests: Dr. Qasim’s clinical interests are in general cardiology and non invasive cardiology, using multi -modality imaging to better understand cardiac disease. In particular this includes the use of transthoracic, stress, transesophageal and three-dimensional echocardiography as well as cardiac CT and cardiac MRI for the diagnosis and management of valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, and pericardial disease.

Research Interests: Dr. Qasim is head of the echocardiography core laboratory which uses echocardiography to evaluate novel cardiac therapies for the treatment of heart failure and valvular heart diseases. The lab has expertise in strain imaging and in echocardiography of novel therapies for valvular heart disease including the Mitraclip system and other transcatheter valve devices.

Education Interests: Dr. Qasim is the cardiology fellowship program director and teaches in the medical school. He created a website related to echocardiography (www.echocardiographer.org) and has a strong interest in providing greater access to online medical educational materials for trainees and practitioners.

• Workplace Factors That Enhance and Impede Learning to Interpret Transthoracic Echocardiograms: Results from a National Survey.
  Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography : official publication of the American Society of Echocardiography 2022 Rodriguez S, Blissett S, Qasim A, O'Sullivan P
• Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair of Systemic Tricuspid Valve in Extracardiac Fontan Circulation: First in Human.
  JACC. Case reports 2022 Blusztein D, Moore P, Qasim A, Mantri N, Mahadevan VS
• A single center evaluation of applicant experiences in virtual interviews across eight internal medicine subspecialty fellowship programs.
  Medical education online 2021 Huppert LA, Hsu G, Elnachef N, Flint L, Frank JA, Gensler LS, Hsiao EC, Khanna RR, Qasim A, Schwartz BS, Widera E, Zapata C, Babik JM
• The effect of kidney transplantation on left ventricular remodeling and global diastolic strain rate in end-stage renal disease.
  Echocardiography (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) 2021 Lassen MCH, Qasim A, Webber A, Gao Y, Biering-Sørensen T, Park M
• Burnout and Well-Being Among Cardiology Fellowship Program Directors.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2021 Cullen MW, Damp JB, Soukoulis V, Keating FK, Abudayyeh I, Auseon A, Bhakta D, Qasim A, Seryak A, Smith SA, Tam MC, Theriot P, Weissman G
• Coronary artery calcium score and risk of cardiovascular events without established coronary artery disease: a systemic review and meta-analysis.
  Coronary artery disease 2021 Abuzaid A, Saad M, Addoumieh A, Ha LD, Elbadawi A, Mahmoud AN, Elgendy A, Abdelaziz HK, Barakat AF, Mentias A, Adeola O, Elgendy IY, Qasim A, Budoff M
• Differences in echocardiography interpretation techniques among trainees and expert readers.
  Journal of echocardiography 2021 Anderson DR, Blissett S, O'Sullivan P, Qasim A
• Race and Gender Bias in Internal Medicine Program Director Letters of Recommendation.
  Journal of graduate medical education 2021 Zhang N, Blissett S, Anderson D, O'Sullivan P, Qasim A
• Learning Echocardiography in the Workplace: A Cognitive Load Perspective.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2021 Blissett S, Rodriguez S, Qasim A, O'Sullivan P
• Ethnicity influences the gut microbiota of individuals sharing a geographical location: a cross-sectional study from a middle-income country.
  Scientific reports 2021 Dwiyanto J, Hussain MH, Reidpath D, Ong KS, Qasim A, Lee SWH, Lee SM, Foo SC, Chong CW, Rahman S
• Program Directors Survey on Diversity in Cardiovascular Training Programs.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2020 Damp JB, Cullen MW, Soukoulis V, Tam MC, Keating FK, Smith SA, Bhakta D, Abudayyeh I, Qasim A, Sernyak A, Auseon A, Theriot P, Weissman G
• Parental Leave in Cardiovascular Disease Training Programs.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2020 Damp JB, Cullen MW, Soukoulis V, Tam MC, Keating FK, Abudayyeh I, Qasim A, Theriot P, Weissman G
• The clinical application of the ratio of transmitral early filling velocity to early diastolic strain rate: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
  Journal of echocardiography 2020 Lassen MCH, Olsen FJ, Skaarup KG, Tolstrup K, Qasim AN, Gislason G, Biering-Sørensen T
• Cardiac function assessed by myocardial deformation in adult polycystic kidney disease patients.
  BMC nephrology 2019 Lassen MCH, Qasim AN, Biering-Sørensen T, Reeh JLT, Watnick T, Seliger SL, Chen H, Sawan MA, Nguyen D, Li Y, Hong SN, Park M
• Ratio of Transmitral Early Filling Velocity to Early Diastolic Strain Rate Predicts All-Cause Mortality in Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction.
  Journal of cardiac failure 2019 Lassen MCH, Sengeløv M, Qasim A, Jørgensen PG, Bruun NE, Olsen FJ, Fritz-Hansen T, Gislason G, Biering-Sørensen T
• Ratio of transmitral early filling velocity to early diastolic strain rate predicts long-term risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the general population.
  European heart journal 2019 Lassen MCH, Biering-Sørensen SR, Olsen FJ, Skaarup KG, Tolstrup K, Qasim AN, Møgelvang R, Jensen JS, Biering-Sørensen T
• One-Year Outcomes After MitraClip for Functional Mitral Regurgitation.
  Circulation 2019 Ailawadi G, Lim DS, Mack MJ, Trento A, Kar S, Grayburn PA, Glower DD, Wang A, Foster E, Qasim A, Weissman NJ, Ellis J, Crosson L, Fan F, Kron IL, Pearson PJ, Feldman T, EVEREST II Investigators
• Fully Automated Echocardiogram Interpretation in Clinical Practice.
  Circulation 2018 Zhang J, Gajjala S, Agrawal P, Tison GH, Hallock LA, Beussink-Nelson L, Lassen MH, Fan E, Aras MA, Jordan C, Fleischmann KE, Melisko M, Qasim A, Shah SJ, Bajcsy R, Deo RC
• Gain-of-function variants in the melanocortin 4 receptor gene confer susceptibility to binge eating disorder in subjects with obesity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
  Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity 2018 Qasim A, Mayhew AJ, Ehtesham S, Alyass A, Volckmar AL, Herpertz S, Hinney A, Hebebrand J, Meyre D
• Five-year outcomes of transcatheter reduction of significant mitral regurgitation in high-surgical-risk patients.
  Heart (British Cardiac Society) 2018 Kar S, Feldman T, Qasim A, Trento A, Kapadia S, Pedersen W, Lim DS, Kipperman R, Smalling RW, Bajwa T, Hermann HC, Hermiller JB, Lasala JM, Reisman M, Glower D, Mauri L, Whitlow P, EVEREST II …
• Cardiac MRI T2* in Liver Transplant Candidates: Application and Performance of a Novel Imaging Technique to Identify Patients at Risk for Poor Posttransplant Cardiac Outcomes.
  Transplantation direct 2018 Lewin SM, Kallianos K, Nevah MI, Zhao S, Fix OK, Brooks GC, De Marco T, Qasim AN, Ordovas KG, Mehta N
• Impact of the MitraClip Procedure on Left Atrial Strain and Strain Rate.
  Circulation. Cardiovascular imaging 2018 Gucuk Ipek E, Singh S, Viloria E, Feldman T, Grayburn P, Foster E, Qasim A
• On the origin of obesity: identifying the biological, environmental and cultural drivers of genetic risk among human populations.
  Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity 2017 Qasim A, Turcotte M, de Souza RJ, Samaan MC, Champredon D, Dushoff J, Speakman JR, Meyre D
• Discordance of the Framingham cardiovascular risk score and the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association risk score in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
  Clinical rheumatology 2017 Jafri K, Ogdie A, Qasim A, Patterson SL, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Katz P, Yazdany J, Schmajuk G
• Cardiovascular events and hospital resource utilization pre- and post-transcatheter mitral valve repair in high-surgical risk patients.
  American heart journal 2017 Vemulapalli S, Lippmann SJ, Krucoff M, Hernandez AF, Curtis LH, Foster E, Qasim A, Wang A, Glower DD, Feldman T, Hammill BG
• Technical Pitfalls in Sonography of the Inferior Vena Cava: Beware the Diaphragm.
  Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine 2017 Teismann NA, Ching B, Shyy W, Knight RS, Kornblith A, Webb E, Bogerman M, Qasim A
• AVJ-514 Trial　- Baseline Characteristics and 30-Day Outcomes Following MitraClip® Treatment in a Japanese Cohort.
  Circulation journal : official journal of the Japanese Circulation Society 2017 Hayashida K, Yasuda S, Matsumoto T, Amaki M, Mizuno S, Tobaru T, Jujo K, Ootomo T, Yamaguchi J, Fukuda K, Saito S, Foster E, Qasim A, Kitakaze M, Yozu R, Takayama M
• Selective association of electrocardiographic abnormalities with insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a cross-sectional analysis.
  Diabetes/metabolism research and reviews 2016 Bhatt AB, Mulvey CK, Qasim AN, Nair JV, Rickels MR, Prenner SB, Iqbal N, Reilly MP
• Plasma apolipoprotein C-III levels, triglycerides, and coronary artery calcification in type 2 diabetics.
  Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology 2015 Qamar A, Khetarpal SA, Khera AV, Qasim A, Rader DJ, Reilly MP
• Ascending and descending thoracic aorta calcification in type 2 diabetes mellitus.
  Journal of cardiovascular computed tomography 2015 Churchill TW, Rasania SP, Rafeek H, Mulvey CK, Terembula K, Ferrari V, Jha S, Lilly SM, Eraso LH, Reilly MP, Qasim AN
• Leptin and incident cardiovascular disease: the Multi-ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).
  Atherosclerosis 2014 Martin SS, Blaha MJ, Muse ED, Qasim AN, Reilly MP, Blumenthal RS, Nasir K, Criqui MH, McClelland RL, Hughes-Austin JM, Allison MA
• Differential association of plasma angiopoietin-like proteins 3 and 4 with lipid and metabolic traits.
  Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology 2014 Mehta N, Qamar A, Qu L, Qasim AN, Mehta NN, Reilly MP, Rader DJ
• Periodontal disease is an independent predictor of intracardiac calcification.
  BioMed research international 2013 Pressman GS, Qasim A, Verma N, Miyamae M, Arishiro K, Notohara Y, Crudu V, Figueredo VM
• Differential associations of oral glucose tolerance test-derived measures of insulin sensitivity and pancreatic β-cell function with coronary artery calcification and microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetes.
  Diabetes care 2013 Mulvey CK, McNeill AM, Girman CJ, Churchill TW, Terembula K, Ferguson JF, Shah R, Mehta NN, Qasim AN, Rickels MR, Reilly MP
• Non-compressible arterial disease and the risk of coronary calcification in type-2 diabetes.
  Atherosclerosis 2013 Lilly SM, Qasim AN, Mulvey CK, Churchill TW, Reilly MP, Eraso LH
• Candidate gene association study of coronary artery calcification in chronic kidney disease: findings from the CRIC study (Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort).
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2013 Ferguson JF, Matthews GJ, Townsend RR, Raj DS, Kanetsky PA, Budoff M, Fischer MJ, Rosas SE, Kanthety R, Rahman M, Master SR, Qasim A, Li M, Mehta NN, Shen H, Mitchell BD, O'Connell JR, Shuldiner AR, …
• Association between the chromosome 9p21 locus and angiographic coronary artery disease burden: a collaborative meta-analysis.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2013 Chan K, Patel RS, Newcombe P, Nelson CP, Qasim A, Epstein SE, Burnett S, Vaccarino VL, Zafari AM, Shah SH, Anderson JL, Carlquist JF, Hartiala J, Allayee H, Hinohara K, Lee BS, Erl A, Ellis KL, Goel A…
• Cardiovascular risk factors and mitral annular calcification in type 2 diabetes.
  Atherosclerosis 2012 Qasim AN, Rafeek H, Rasania SP, Churchill TW, Yang W, Ferrari VA, Jha S, Master SM, Mulvey CK, Terembula K, Dailing C, Budoff MJ, Kawut SM, Reilly MP
• C-reactive protein modifies the association of plasma leptin with coronary calcium in asymptomatic overweight individuals.
  Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 2011 Martin SS, Qasim AN, Rader DJ, Reilly MP
• Pathway-Wide Association Study Implicates Multiple Sterol Transport and Metabolism Genes in HDL Cholesterol Regulation.
  Frontiers in genetics 2011 Wang K, Edmondson AC, Li M, Gao F, Qasim AN, Devaney JM, Burnett MS, Waterworth DM, Mooser V, Grant SF, Epstein SE, Reilly MP, Hakonarson H, Rader DJ
• A changing trend in the management of patients with newly diagnosed Crohn's disease.
  Irish journal of medical science 2011 Qasim A, Ullah N, Crotty P, Swan N, Breslin N, Ryan B, Torreggiani W, Eguare E, Neary P, O'Connor H, O'Morain C
• Genome-wide association study of coronary heart disease and its risk factors in 8,090 African Americans: the NHLBI CARe Project.
  PLoS genetics 2011 Lettre G, Palmer CD, Young T, Ejebe KG, Allayee H, Benjamin EJ, Bennett F, Bowden DW, Chakravarti A, Dreisbach A, Farlow DN, Folsom AR, Fornage M, Forrester T, Fox E, Haiman CA, Hartiala J, Harris TB,…
• Comparison of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol to apolipoprotein A-I and A-II to predict coronary calcium and the effect of insulin resistance.
  The American journal of cardiology 2011 Martin SS, Qasim AN, Wolfe M, St Clair C, Schwartz S, Iqbal N, Schutta M, Bagheri R, Mehta NN, Rader DJ, Reilly MP
• Round one of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital/Trinity College Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme: programme report and analysis based on established international key performance indices.
  Irish journal of medical science 2011 McNamara D, Qasim A, Lee N, Condon C, O'Morain C
• Gender differences in the association of C-reactive protein with coronary artery calcium in type-2 diabetes.
  Clinical endocrinology 2011 Qasim AN, Budharaju V, Mehta NN, St Clair C, Farouk S, Braunstein S, Schutta M, Iqbal N, Rader DJ, Reilly MP
• Type 2 diabetes does not attenuate racial differences in coronary calcification.
  Diabetes research and clinical practice 2010 Wade AN, Fedyna S, Mehta NN, St Clair C, Ginwala N, Krishna RK, Qasim AN, Braunstein S, Iqbal N, Schutta MH, Reilly MP
• Lack of association between the Trp719Arg polymorphism in kinesin-like protein-6 and coronary artery disease in 19 case-control studies.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2010 Assimes TL, Hólm H, Kathiresan S, Reilly MP, Thorleifsson G, Voight BF, Erdmann J, Willenborg C, Vaidya D, Xie C, Patterson CC, Morgan TM, Burnett MS, Li M, Hlatky MA, Knowles JW, Thompson JR, Absher …
• A comparative study of faecal occult blood kits in a colorectal cancer screening program in a cohort of healthy construction workers.
  Irish journal of medical science 2010 Shuhaibar M, Walsh C, Lindsay F, Lee N, Walsh P, O'Gorman P, Boran G, McLoughlin R, Qasim A, Breslin N, Ryan B, O'Connor H, O'Morain C
• Relation of plasma fatty acid binding proteins 4 and 5 with the metabolic syndrome, inflammation and coronary calcium in patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus.
  The American journal of cardiology 2010 Bagheri R, Qasim AN, Mehta NN, Terembula K, Kapoor S, Braunstein S, Schutta M, Iqbal N, Lehrke M, Reilly MP
• Lipoprotein(a) is strongly associated with coronary artery calcification in type-2 diabetic women.
  International journal of cardiology 2010 Qasim AN, Martin SS, Mehta NN, Wolfe ML, Park J, Schwartz S, Schutta M, Iqbal N, Reilly MP
• Hepatic transplantation outcomes for carefully selected cirrhotic patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: experience at a small- to medium-volume centre.
  Irish journal of medical science 2009 Qasim A, Zaman MB, Maguire D, Geoghegan J, Gibney R, Nolan N, Traynor O, Hegarty J, McCormick PA
• Association of lower plasma fetuin-a levels with peripheral arterial disease in type 2 diabetes.
  Diabetes care 2009 Eraso LH, Ginwala N, Qasim AN, Mehta NN, Dlugash R, Kapoor S, Schwartz S, Schutta M, Iqbal N, Mohler ER, Reilly MP
• Apolipoprotein B but not LDL cholesterol is associated with coronary artery calcification in type 2 diabetic whites.
  Diabetes 2009 Martin SS, Qasim AN, Mehta NN, Wolfe M, Terembula K, Schwartz S, Iqbal N, Schutta M, Bagheri R, Reilly MP
• Genome-wide association of early-onset myocardial infarction with single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants.
  Nature genetics 2009 Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium, Kathiresan S, Voight BF, Purcell S, Musunuru K, Ardissino D, Mannucci PM, Anand S, Engert JC, Samani NJ, Schunkert H, Erdmann J, Reilly MP, Rader DJ, Morgan …
• Significant influence of the primary liver disease on the outcomes of hepatic retransplantation.
  Irish journal of medical science 2008 Qasim A, Zaman BM, Geoghegan J, Maguire D, Traynor O, Hegarty J, McCormick PA
• Leptin resistance: a possible interface of inflammation and metabolism in obesity-related cardiovascular disease.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2008 Martin SS, Qasim A, Reilly MP
• Resistin gene variation is associated with systemic inflammation but not plasma adipokine levels, metabolic syndrome or coronary atherosclerosis in nondiabetic Caucasians.
  Clinical endocrinology 2008 Qasim AN, Metkus TS, Tadesse M, Lehrke M, Restine S, Wolfe ML, Hannenhalli S, Cappola T, Rader DJ, Reilly MP
• Adipokines, insulin resistance, and coronary artery calcification.
  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2008 Qasim A, Mehta NN, Tadesse MG, Wolfe ML, Rhodes T, Girman C, Reilly MP
• Improved survival outcomes for liver transplantation.
  Irish medical journal 2007 Qasim A, McCormick PA, Tajuddin T, Zaman MB, Traynor O, Hegarty J, Geoghegan J
• MELD score as a prognostic model for listing acute liver failure patients for liver transplantation.
  Transplantation proceedings 2006 Zaman MB, Hoti E, Qasim A, Maguire D, McCormick PA, Hegarty JE, Geoghegan JG, Traynor O
• Human genetics of variation in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
  Current atherosclerosis reports 2006 Qasim A, Rader DJ
• A positive endomyocardial biopsy result for sarcoid is associated with poor prognosis in patients with initially unexplained cardiomyopathy.
  American heart journal 2005 Ardehali H, Howard DL, Hariri A, Qasim A, Hare JM, Baughman KL, Kasper EK
• Advances in portal hypertension.
  The Medical journal of Malaysia 2005 McCormick A, Qasim A
• Endomyocardial biopsy plays a role in diagnosing patients with unexplained cardiomyopathy.
  American heart journal 2004 Ardehali H, Qasim A, Cappola T, Howard D, Hruban R, Hare JM, Baughman KL, Kasper EK
• Endoscopic argon plasma coagulation for the treatment of gastric antral vascular ectasia (watermelon stomach): long-term results.
  Digestive and liver disease : official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver 2004 Sebastian S, McLoughlin R, Qasim A, O'Morain CA, Buckley MJ
• Appropriateness of gastric antisecretory therapy in hospital practice.
  Irish journal of medical science 2003 Sebastian SS, Kernan N, Qasim A, O'Morain CA, Buckley M
• Ecstasy induced acute myocardial infarction.
  Heart (British Cardiac Society) 2001 Qasim A, Townend J, Davies MK