In Memoriam: Dr. Keiichiro Yoshinaga, the Editor-in-chief of the Annals of Nuclear Cardiology

Dr.Keiichiro Yoshinaga, who was a board member of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology (JSNC), chairman of the editorial board, and editor-in-chief of the Annals of Nuclear Cardiology (ANC), passed away on October 7th, 2020. I am writing this obituary as the President of JSNC in honor of his achievements, and I sincerely pray that his soul may rest in peace.

Dr. Keiichiro Yoshinaga began his medical career as a cardiologist after graduating from Kagoshima University, Faculty of Medicine in 1992. During the early stage of his career, he was interested in nuclear cardiology. In 1999, he decided to join the Department of Nuclear Medicine of Hokkaido University, founded by Professor Nagara Tamaki. I, myself, also studied under Prof. Tamaki when he was working in Kyoto University. Therefore, Dr. Yoshinaga and I were fellow students of Dr. Tamaki and became friends. When Dr. Yoshinaga joined Prof. Tamaki’s research team, Hokkaido University was starting PET under Prof. Tamaki. In the early days of Prof. Tamaki’s department, a group of young researchers established a laboratory in which they investigated myocardial blood flow, flow reserve, and vascular endothelial function. Dr. Yoshinaga was very productive and generated many research results.

To expand his research career, Dr. Yoshinaga moved to Canada to study at the Ottawa Heart Center, at which he performed research on nuclear medicine, particularly PET nuclear cardiology, under Dr. Rob Beanlands, who was famous for his work on cardiac PET. During his days in Canada, Dr. Yoshinaga published many studies on nuclear cardiology and established a close friendship with leading nuclear cardiologists in the US and Canada. I believe that the friendship between leading nuclear cardiologists and Dr. Yoshinaga resulted in a strong bridge between Japanese nuclear cardiologists and foreign researchers after his return to Japan. JSNC invite top researchers from abroad to give lectures at our annual meeting. When I was appointed as a chair of the International Exchange Committee of JSNC, Dr. Yoshinaga supported and helped me to negotiate with foreign societies. I fondly recall that he attended the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) annual meeting with me and helped me in discussions with ASNC board members and the secretariat with his fluent English. In 2019, JSNC was able to conclude an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with ASNC. Without Dr. Yoshinaga’s strong relationship with and trust between ASNC, the MOU would not have been possible. We are deeply grateful to him.

After returning to Japan from Canada, Dr. Yoshinaga again joined Prof. Tamaki’s department at Hokkaido University, at which he had been conducting research in various fields. In the field of nuclear cardiology, Dr. Yoshinaga was the first in Japan to use Rb-82 PET to evaluate myocardial flow reserve and vascular endothelial function, and he published many studies on this subject. In addition, he focused on the diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis using FDG PET and conducted many studies to establish the effectiveness of FDG PET and standardization of methods. In 2012, FDG PET was approved for cardiac sarcoidosis imaging earlier than many expectations. There is no doubt that the knowledge gained from Dr. Yoshinaga’s research contributed to this rapid approval. He received the Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology Award in 2009, the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine Award in 2010, and the Clinical Research Imura Award in 2011 for his activities.

In 2017, Dr. Yoshinaga moved to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS) and began his career as a team leader at the Department of Molecular Imaging and Theranostics. At that time, he was universally recognized as the leading researcher in cardiovascular PET research not only in Japan, but also globally, based on his many achievements/activities. In the field of nuclear medicine research, he expanded his focus from cardiovascular research to the therapeutic use of radioisotopes, such as I-131 MIBG. I noticed that a few days before his passing, his study on the efficacy of I-131 MIBG therapy was accepted by the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. It is such a pity that he passed away before he could see this publication.

Dr. Yoshinaga was one of the most important members of JSNC as a driving force of our society. He was also one of the few Japanese researchers who was a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and a Fellow of ASNC (FASNC), and his strong and wide network in the international research community made him the most important member of JSNC for our overseas activities. Importantly, Dr. Yoshinaga was the greatest contributor to the establishment of ANC, an official English journal of JSNC. He was the Founding Editor of ANC. Due to his extensive efforts, the longtime wish of JSNC to have an official English journal became a reality with ANC. ANC recently published Volume 6. We believe that this is the result of the tremendous efforts made by Dr. Yoshinaga as a chief editor of the journal. Fortunately, we were able to publish the latest issue of the journal before Dr. Yoshinaga passed away. We pledge to carry on his efforts to obtain an impact factor for ANC and be listed on PubMed.

I, as the president of JSNC, expected Dr. Yoshinaga to continue his activities as a leading member of the society, particularly in the field of international activities. I wished to rely on his wide international research network, and to continue to lead the society in various activities. I pledge to continue to expand the many accomplishments that Dr. Yoshinaga has left behind, including ANC, which is the greatest asset of the society.

Keiichiro, we miss you.

Takashi Kudo,

President of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology