Ursula Heilmeier, MD
TICR Graduate Programs
Radiology
School of Medicine

After graduating from Medical School, she started her residency training in radiology at the Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) hospital in Munich and finished her doctoral thesis (Dr.med.) summa cum laude; in her thesis she investigated macrophage and dendritic cell differentiation. She then joined MQIR at UCSF as a postdoctoral scholar to study musculoskeletal aging. Her research work centers around bone and cartilage health and senescence, with an emphasis on diabetic bone disease and osteoarthritis. She received several awards for her work including the ASBMR Young Investigator Award, the ECTS New Investigator Award as well as awards from the ESCEO and the ISCD.

• Chronic low-grade inflammation in patients with systemic sclerosis is associated with increased risk for arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
  Frontiers in medicine 2024 Heilmeier U, Feldmann D, Leynes A, Seng M, Jandova I, Keute M, Kollert F, Voll RE, Finzel S
• Analysis of Hand Joint Space Morphology in Women and Men with Hereditary Hemochromatosis.
  Calcified tissue international 2023 Heilmeier U, Burghardt AJ, Tse JJ, Kapoor P, Stok KS, Manske S, Voll RE, Schett G, Finzel S
• Inflammatory arthritis in systemic sclerosis is associated with elevated C-reactive protein and requires musculoskeletal ultrasound for reliable detection.
  Frontiers in medicine 2023 Feldmann D, Jandova I, Heilmeier U, Kollert F, Voll RE, Finzel S
• Infrapatellar fat pad abnormalities are associated with a higher inflammatory synovial fluid cytokine profile in young adults following ACL tear.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2019 Heilmeier U, Mamoto K, Amano K, Eck B, Tanaka M, Bullen JA, Schwaiger BJ, Huebner JL, Stabler TV, Kraus VB, Ma CB, Link TM, Li X
• Structural Changes over a Short Period Are Associated with Functional Assessments in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  The Journal of rheumatology 2019 Shimizu T, Cruz A, Tanaka M, Mamoto K, Pedoia V, Burghardt AJ, Heilmeier U, Link TM, Graf J, Imboden JB, Li X
• Central osteophytes develop in cartilage with abnormal structure and composition: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative cohort.
  Skeletal radiology 2019 Kretzschmar M, Heilmeier U, Foreman SC, Joseph GB, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Link TM
• Diabetics show accelerated progression of knee cartilage and meniscal lesions: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Skeletal radiology 2018 Neumann J, Guimaraes JB, Heilmeier U, Joseph GB, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• Baseline knee joint effusion and medial femoral bone marrow edema, in addition to MRI-based T2 relaxation time and texture measurements of knee cartilage, can help predict incident total knee arthroplasty 4-7 years later: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Skeletal radiology 2018 Heilmeier U, Wamba JM, Joseph GB, Darakananda K, Callan J, Neumann J, Link TM
• Associations between molecular biomarkers and MR-based cartilage composition and knee joint morphology: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2018 Joseph GB, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Neumann J, Lynch JA, Heilmeier U, Lane NE, Link TM
• Type 2 diabetes patients have accelerated cartilage matrix degeneration compared to diabetes free controls: data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2018 Neumann J, Hofmann FC, Heilmeier U, Ashmeik W, Tang K, Gersing AS, Schwaiger BJ, Nevitt MC, Joseph GB, Lane NE, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• Tool for osteoarthritis risk prediction (TOARP) over 8 years using baseline clinical data, X-ray, and MRI: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2017 Joseph GB, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Neumann J, Gersing AS, Kretzschmar M, Schwaiger BJ, Lynch JA, Heilmeier U, Lane NE, Link TM
• Assessment of 3-month changes in bone microstructure under anti-TNFα therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT).
  Arthritis research & therapy 2017 Shimizu T, Choi HJ, Heilmeier U, Tanaka M, Burghardt AJ, Gong J, Chanchek N, Link TM, Graf J, Imboden JB, Li X
• Conservatively treated knee injury is associated with knee cartilage matrix degeneration measured with MRI-based T2 relaxation times: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Skeletal radiology 2017 Hofmann FC, Neumann J, Heilmeier U, Joseph GB, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• Association of diabetes mellitus and biochemical knee cartilage composition assessed by T2 relaxation time measurements: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2017 Chanchek N, Gersing AS, Schwaiger BJ, Nevitt MC, Neumann J, Joseph GB, Lane NE, Zarnowski J, Hofmann FC, Heilmeier U, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• Medial femur T2 Z-scores predict the probability of knee structural worsening over 4-8 years: Data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2017 Joseph GB, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Gersing AS, Schwaiger BJ, Kretzschmar M, Heilmeier U, Link TM
• Evaluation of Chondrocalcinosis and Associated Knee Joint Degeneration Using MR Imaging: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  European radiology 2016 Gersing AS, Schwaiger BJ, Heilmeier U, Joseph GB, Facchetti L, Kretzschmar M, Lynch JA, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Steinbach LS, Link TM
• Serum microRNAs are indicative of skeletal fractures in postmenopausal women with and without type 2 diabetes and influence osteogenic and adipogenic differentiation of adipose-tissue derived mesenchymal stem cells in vitro
  J Bone Miner Res 2016 Jun 27. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.2897 [Epub ahead of print] 2016
• Eur Radiol. 2016 Oct 4. [Epub ahead of print]
  Eur Radiol. 2016 Oct 4. [Epub ahead of print] 2016
• Semin Musculoskelet Radiol
  Diabetes and Bone 2016 Heilmeier U, Patsch JM.
• Evaluating radiocarpal cartilage matrix changes 3-months after anti-TNF treatment for rheumatoid arthritis using MR T1ρ imaging.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2016 Ku E, Pedoia V, Tanaka M, Heilmeier U, Imboden J, Graf J, Link T, Li X
• Magnetic resonance imaging lesions are more severe and cartilage T2 relaxation time measurements are higher in isolated lateral compartment radiographic knee osteoarthritis than in isolated medial compartment disease - data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2016 Wise BL, Niu J, Guermazi A, Liu F, Heilmeier U, Ku E, Lynch JA, Zhang Y, Felson DT, Kwoh CK, Lane NE
• Role of thigh muscle cross-sectional area and strength in progression of knee cartilage degeneration over 48 months - data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2016 Goldman LH, Tang K, Facchetti L, Heilmeier U, Joseph GB, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Souza RB, Link TM
• Semin Musculoskelet Radiol
  2016
• Longitudinal analysis of cartilage T2 relaxation times and joint degeneration in African American and Caucasian American women over an observation period of 6 years - data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2016 Kretzschmar M, Heilmeier U, Yu A, Joseph GB, Liu F, Solka M, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Link TM
• MRI findings associated with development of incident knee pain over 48 months: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Skeletal radiology 2016 Joseph GB, Hou SW, Nardo L, Heilmeier U, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• Osteoporosis Imaging in the Geriatric Patient.
  Current radiology reports 2016 Heilmeier U, Youm J, Torabi S, Link TM
• Progression of cartilage degeneration and clinical symptoms in obese and overweight individuals is dependent on the amount of weight loss: 48-month data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative.
  Osteoarthritis and cartilage 2016 Gersing AS, Solka M, Joseph GB, Schwaiger BJ, Heilmeier U, Feuerriegel G, Nevitt MC, McCulloch CE, Link TM
• High-temporospatial-resolution dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) wrist MRI with variable-density pseudo-random circular Cartesian undersampling (CIRCUS) acquisition: evaluation of perfusion in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
  NMR in biomedicine 2015 Liu J, Pedoia V, Heilmeier U, Ku E, Su F, Khanna S, Imboden J, Graf J, Link T, Li X
• Femoral condyle insufficiency fractures: associated clinical and morphological findings and impact on outcome.
  Skeletal radiology 2015 Plett SK, Hackney LA, Heilmeier U, Nardo L, Yu A, Zhang CA, Link TM
• Osteoarthritis Cartilage
  Racial differences in biochemical knee cartilage composition between African-American and Caucasian-American women with 3Tesla MR-based T2 relaxation time measurements - Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative. 2015 Yu A*, Heilmeier U* (* shared first authors), Kretzschmar M, Joseph GB, Liu F, Liebl H, McCulloch CE, Nevitt MC, Lane NE, Link TM.
• In vitro assessment of knee MRI in the presence of metal implants comparing MAVRIC-SL and conventional fast spin echo sequences at 1.5 and 3 T field strength.
  Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI 2014 Liebl H, Heilmeier U, Lee S, Nardo L, Patsch J, Schuppert C, Han M, Rondak IC, Banerjee S, Koch K, Link TM, Krug R
• Early T2 changes predict onset of radiographic knee osteoarthritis: data from the osteoarthritis initiative.
  Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2014 Liebl H, Joseph G, Nevitt MC, Singh N, Heilmeier U, Subburaj K, Jungmann PM, McCulloch CE, Lynch JA, Lane NE, Link TM
• Radiologe. 2010 Oct;50(10):902-6. doi: 10.1007/s00117-010-2067-9. German
  An unusual case of non-traumatic enophthalmos Heilmeier U, Decker C, Miller C, Hintschich C, Reiser MF, Mueller-Lisse UG
• Untitled Publication
  Kretzschmar M., Lin W., Nardo L., Joseph GB, Dunlop DD., Heilmeier U., Nevitt MC., Alizai H., McCulloch CE., Lynch JA., Link TM. Association of physical activity measured by accelerometer, knee joint …
• Untitled Publication
  Lance V., Heilmeier UR., Joseph GB., Steinbach L., Ma B., Link TM. MR imaging characteristics and clinical symptoms related to displaced meniscal flap tears. Skeletal Radiol. 2015 Mar; 44(3):375-84.
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  Joseph GB., McCulloch CE., Nevitt MC., Heilmeier U., Nardo L., Lynch JA., Liu F., Baum T., Link TM. A Reference Database of Cartilage 3 Tesla MRI T2 Values in Knees without Diagnostic Evidence of …
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  Kretzschmar M., Nardo L., Han MM., Heilmeier U., Sam C., Joseph GB., Koch KM., Krug R., Link TM. Metal artefact suppression at 3 T MRI: comparison of MAVRIC-SL with conventional fast spin echo …
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  Schuierer MM., Heilmeier U., Boettcher A., Ugocsai P., Bosserhoff AK., Schmitz G., Langmann T. Induction of Raf kinase inhibitor protein contributes to macrophage differentiation. Biochem Biophys Res …