Leon Axel

Leon Axel, MD, PhD, is a Professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in the Departments of Radiology, Medicine, and Neuroscience. As a cardiovascular radiologist at NYU Langone, he specializes in cardiac MRI for diagnosing heart diseases and guiding treatment. His technical background in physics and astrophysics (Princeton PhD, 1971; UCSF MD, 1976) underpins his dual focus on clinical imaging and methodological innovation.

Research Highlights:

• Developing tagged MRI to quantify regional cardiac motion and its pathophysiological alterations
• Advancing rapid quantitative perfusion imaging frameworks
• Integrating artificial intelligence for clinical image analysis
• Leading the multidisciplinary Cardiac Imaging and Analysis Laboratory (CARDIAL)

Clinical Impact: His work addresses ischemic heart disease and infarction, major contributors to Western mortality, through MRI/CT applications. The 211 publications (including 3 recent ones) demonstrate sustained contributions to:

• Cardiomyopathy imaging
• Diffusion tensor analysis
• Apical aneurysm characterization
• Cardiac physiology modeling