Prabhjot Nijjar, M.D.

Prabhjot Nijjar (nijja003@umn.edu) received his early education in India, and after completing his Internal Medicine residency and Cardiac Prevention training in Philadelphia, he moved to Minneapolis for fellowship training in Cardiology and Advanced Cardiac Imaging at the University of Minnesota. He has a general cardiology practice, with a focus on cardiac prevention. He is involved in the conduct of clinical trials in behavioral cardiology, including studying the benefits of meditation in treatment of heart disease. He is the medical director of cardiac CT, and is passionate about the optimal use of CT in diagnosis of various heart conditions.

Dr. Nijjar’s research interests include optimal use of cardiac CT and MRI, behavioral cardiology, and benefits of meditation in treatment of heart disease.

Representative publications including residents and fellows:

• Kealhofer JV, Markowitz JS, Nijjar PS. High Aortic Prosthesis Gradient: Is It Thrombus or Pannus? Texas Heart Institute Journal. https://doi.org/10.14503/THIJ-17-6459
• Nijjar PS. Prognosis in Sporadic Left Ventricular Hypertrabeculation with Normal Function. J Am Coll Cardiol. June 2018 Vol. 71(24): 2864-65.
• Oestreich BA, Mbai M, Gurevich S, Nijjar PS, Adabag S, Bertog S, Kelly R, Garcia S. Computed tomography (CT) assessment of the membranous septal anatomy prior to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) with the balloon-expandable SAPIEN 3 valve. Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine. 2017 Dec 27. pii: S1553-8389(17)30467-0. doi: 10.1016/j.carrev.2017.12.012.
• McGraw S, Carlson C, Grant K, Nijjar PS. Feasibility of ultra low-dose coronary CTA. Indian Heart Journal. 2017 Sep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ihj.2017.09.004
• Huang H, Nijjar PS, Misialek JR, Blaes A, Derrico NP, Kazmirczak F, Klem I, Farzaneh-Far A, Shenoy C. Accuracy of Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction by Contemporary Multiple Gated Acquisition Scanning in Patients with Cancer: Comparison with Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging. J Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. 2017 Mar 24;19(1):34.
• Tran BC, Nijjar PS. Role of contrast CT for the diagnosis and the prognosis of suspected LVAD thrombosis. Journal of Cardiac Surgery. 2017 Feb;32(2):162-165.
• Nijjar PS, Iqbal FM, Alraies MC, Valeti US, Tadavarthy SM. Primary Pulmonary Artery Sarcoma Masquerading as Pulmonary Embolism: Role of Cardiac MRI. European Heart Journal. 2016 May 7;37(18):1479
• Nijjar PS, Vongooru H, Tamene A, Valeti U, Masri C. Improvement in Left Ventricular Function Despite No Change in T2* with Iron Chelation in Secondary Hemochromatosis. Minn Med. 2015 Jul;98(7), 47
• Nijjar PS, Puppala VK, Dickinson O, Duval S, Duprez D, Kreitzer MJ, Benditt DG. Modulation of Autonomic Nervous System Assessed Through Heart Rate Variability by a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program. International Journal of Cardiology. 177 (2014) 557–559
• Nijjar PS, Masri SC, Tamene A, Kassahun H, Liao K, Valeti U. Benefits and Limitations of Multimodality Imaging for Diagnosis of a Primary Cardiac Lymphoma. Tex Heart Inst J. 2014 Dec;41(6):657-9

Research projects available with Dr. Nijjar include:

1. Prevalence and prognosis of coronary calcium in cancer patients recieving cardiotoxic chemotherapy.
2. Clinical utility of cardiac CT in prosthetic valve dysfunction.
3. Stress CMR for peri-op risk stratification of vascular patients.