Leslie T. Cooper Jr., M.D.

The research of Leslie T. Cooper Jr., M.D., focuses on clinical and translational studies of inflammatory cardiac and vascular diseases.

Specific disorders include giant cell myocarditis (GCM), cardiac sarcoidosis, eosinophillic myocarditis, Takayasu's arteritis and thromboangiitis obliterans (Buerger's disease). GCM is a devastating disease with an overall rate of death or heart transplantation of about 89 percent.

Dr. Cooper currently works on three National Institutes of Health-funded projects that focus on genetic and immunologic mechanisms of acute myocarditis.

Focus areas

• Myocarditis
• Large vessel vascultitis
• Thromboangiitis obliterans

Significance to patient care

Giant cell myocarditis was a uniformly fatal disease through the early 1990s. Work by Dr. Cooper and his colleagues on the use of multidrug immunosuppressive treatment has led to a one-year survival rate of greater than 90 percent.

Professional highlights

• Founder and President, Myocarditis Foundation