Profile Detail

James M. Mountz, MD, PhD

 Professor
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Interest (in 3 to 10 words):

Medical / Graduate School MS, Physics (Summa Cum Laude)
Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

PhD, High Energy Physics, Michigan State University

MD, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Residency Radiology, Residency
University of Michigan Medical Center (1985), Board Certified
Clinical / Post-doctoral Fellowship Nuclear Medicine
University of Michigan Medical Center (1986), Board Certified
Current
Specialties
& Programs		 PET
MR
CT
Nuclear Medicine
Clinical Interest At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Mountz has assumed significant administrative responsibilities in the Department of Radiology. In addition to his appointment as Director of Neuro-Nuclear Medicine. He is also Chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine and the Medical Director of PET Imaging and Director of Nuclear Medicine Research. With these responsibilities, there have been several major clinical and research advancements in the Division of Nuclear Medicine.

Dr. Mountz has expanded the Nuclear Medicine interpretation of PET scans to include diagnostic PET-CT scans and now the division of nuclear medicine provides integrated PET with diagnostic CT interpretations. This clinical advance has been nationally recognized as a groundbreaking achievement in solving the clinical integration of PET and CT oncology interpretation. This required significant effort on his part as well as on the part of non-radiology board certified nuclear medicine staff members to achieve the ACR-SNM criteria for interpretation of CT scans. Since its initiation over 5 years ago, all clinical staff have completed the required 500 proctored cases and 100 CME hours necessary for nuclear medicine physicians to obtain hospital credentialing for interpretation of CT scans. The PET/CT fellowship program within the Division provides highly supervised clinical instruction in both PET and diagnostic CT interpretation. Many therapeutic procedures using radiopharmaceuticals are also provided, the most common treatment involving iodine-131 for differentiated thyroid cancer. The division serves as a referral center for thyroid cancer and other thyroid and parathyroid imaging not only for the region but also for most of the western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Dedicated SPECT-CT with diagnostic contrast enhanced CT is a unique diagnostic imaging technique performed only at UPMC for challenging cases of parathyroid and neuroendocrine tumors such as carcinoids and pheochromocytomas. UPMC is also a leading center for the radioimmunotherapy of lymphoma, radioembolization therapy using Ytrrium-90 microspheres for advanced liver cancers, Radium-223 alpha radiation therapy for widespread bone metastatic disease in prostate cancer, and several innovative clinical therapy trials including those that utilize antibodies tagged with Yttrium-90 for pancreatic cancer

As Director of NeuroNuclear Medicine, Dr. Mountz has worked to improve clinical brain SPECT and PET scan acquisition and analysis. He has developed normative databases, and advanced statistical algorithms allowing for the more accurate diagnosis of CNS disease. In epilepsy, he is internationally recognized as a leader in ictal/interictal brain SPECT and PET scan evaluation for identification of an epileptogenic focus. He has co-developed and promoted the use of in-house software using statistical parametric analysis for the purpose of epileptogenic focus localization. He has instituted interpretation of SPECT and PET scans using parametric image analysis to permit better diagnosis of AD versus FTD. In the diagnosis of recurrent or residual viable brain tumor assessment, he has tested fusion software that allows fusion of PET or SPECT abnormalities with MRI to more accurately localize areas of recurrent viable brain tumor.
Research Interest The University of Pittsburgh and UPMC are world leaders in research and development of both instrumentation (the first PET/CT scanner was invented at UPMC) and radiotracers (over 100 radiolabeled compounds for human and animal use, including Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB)). Research opportunities in the use of experimental PET radiopharmaceuticals in novel cancer therapy trials and the role of PET-CT and PET-MR imaging biomarkers for early cancer therapy response assessment are available. As Medical Director of PET Imaging, Director of Nuclear Medicine Research and Co-Director of the In Vivo Imaging Facility for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Dr. Mountz has successfully led many research projects in brain and cancer imaging research as evidenced by the range of important publication listed in his curriculum vitae.

Dr. Mountz currently or has been the principal investigator on four NIH funded grant applications and several corporate grant applications in addition to Society, foundation, and approximately 20 other intramural and extramural grant applications. He has published over 150 peer review manuscripts and over 20 book chapters and presented over 400 peer-reviewed presentations concerning results from these research endeavors.

His areas of current research primarily involve brain imaging and oncology imaging. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. He received the James A. Shannon NIH Directors Award (R55HD032100) for the innovative application "Neuroimaging and Stroke Rehabilitation Prognosis" 1994-1996, and R01HD032100 "Neuroimaging and Stroke Rehabilitation Prognosis in 1995. In 2009, Dr. Mountz was awarded a NIH grant (U01 CA140230-01) entitled "Quantitative Biomarker Imaging for Early Therapy Response Assessment in Cancer". In this project, measures of novel quantitative imaging biomarkers will be combined with cancer patient outcome to develop predictive methodologies for early assessment of response to cancer therapy. Imaging biomarkers of therapy induced early changes in tumor biology will be serially obtained and rigidly quantified. More recently, in 2013, was awarded NIH grant 1S10RR029202-01, NIH High-End Instrumentation Grant Program (S10) “PET/CT for quantitative biomarker assessment of early disease & therapy response” to fund a dedicated research whole body state-of-art PET/CT scanner suitable for conducting dynamic imaging in humans and non-human primates as well as the clinical trials and research studies using sophisticated scanning protocols and/or novel or short lived PET radiopharmaceuticals.
Selected Publications   1: Eisenmenger LB, Huo EJ, Hoffman JM, Minoshima S, Matesan MC, Lewis DH,
Lopresti BJ, Mathis CA, Okonkwo DO, Mountz JM. Advances in PET Imaging of
Degenerative, Cerebrovascular, and Traumatic Causes of Dementia. Semin Nucl Med.
2016 Jan;46(1):57-87. doi: 10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2015.09.003. Review. PubMed PMID:
26687858.


2: Mountz JM, Laymon CM, Cohen AD, Zhang Z, Price JC, Boudhar S, McDade E,
Aizenstein HJ, Klunk WE, Mathis CA. Comparison of qualitative and quantitative
imaging characteristics of [11C]PiB and [18F]flutemetamol in normal control and
Alzheimer's subjects. Neuroimage Clin. 2015 Oct 14;9:592-8. doi:
10.1016/j.nicl.2015.10.007. eCollection 2015. PubMed PMID: 26640770; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC4633837.


3: Schirda CV, Zhao T, Andronesi OC, Lee Y, Pan JW, Mountz JM, Hetherington HP,
Boada FE. In vivo brain rosette spectroscopic imaging (RSI) with LASER
excitation, constant gradient strength readout, and automated LCModel
quantification for all voxels. Magn Reson Med. 2015 Aug 26. doi:
10.1002/mrm.25896. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 26308482.


4: Nakajima EC, Laymon C, Oborski M, Hou W, Wang L, Grandis JR, Ferris RL, Mountz
JM, Van Houten B. Quantifying metabolic heterogeneity in head and neck tumors in
real time: 2-DG uptake is highest in hypoxic tumor regions. PLoS One. 2014 Aug
15;9(8):e102452. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102452. eCollection 2014. PubMed
PMID: 25127378; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4134191.


5: Qian Y, Panigrahy A, Laymon CM, Lee VK, Drappatz J, Lieberman FS, Boada FE,
Mountz JM. Short-T(2) imaging for quantifying concentration of sodium ((23) Na)
of bi-exponential T(2) relaxation. Magn Reson Med. 2014 Jul 30. doi:
10.1002/mrm.25393. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25078966; PubMed Central
PMCID: PMC4312273.


6: Mountz JM, Yankeelov TE, Rubin DL, Buatti JM, Erikson BJ, Fennessy FM, Gillies
RJ, Huang W, Jacobs MA, Kinahan PE, Laymon CM, Linden HM, Mankoff DA, Schwartz
LH, Shim H, Wahl RL. Letter to cancer center directors: Progress in quantitative
imaging as a means to predict and/or measure tumor response in cancer therapy
trials. J Clin Oncol. 2014 Jul 1;32(19):2115-6. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2014.55.8866.
Epub 2014 May 27. PubMed PMID: 24868025.


7: Huang W, Li X, Chen Y, Li X, Chang MC, Oborski MJ, Malyarenko DI, Muzi M,
Jajamovich GH, Fedorov A, Tudorica A, Gupta SN, Laymon CM, Marro KI, Dyvorne HA,
Miller JV, Barbodiak DP, Chenevert TL, Yankeelov TE, Mountz JM, Kinahan PE,
Kikinis R, Taouli B, Fennessy F, Kalpathy-Cramer J. Variations of dynamic
contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in evaluation of breast cancer
therapy response: a multicenter data analysis challenge. Transl Oncol. 2014 Feb
1;7(1):153-66. eCollection 2014 Feb. PubMed PMID: 24772219; PubMed Central PMCID:
PMC3998693.


8: Oborski MJ, Laymon CM, Qian Y, Lieberman FS, Nelson AD, Mountz JM. Challenges
and Approaches to Quantitative Therapy Response Assessment in Glioblastoma
Multiforme Using the Novel Apoptosis Positron Emission Tomography Tracer F-18
ML-10. Transl Oncol. 2014 Feb 1;7(1):111-9. eCollection 2014 Feb. PubMed PMID:
24772214; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3998694.


9: Chenevert TL, Malyarenko DI, Newitt D, Li X, Jayatilake M, Tudorica A, Fedorov
A, Kikinis R, Liu TT, Muzi M, Oborski MJ, Laymon CM, Li X, Thomas Y, Jayashree
KC, Mountz JM, Kinahan PE, Rubin DL, Fennessy F, Huang W, Hylton N, Ross BD.
Errors in Quantitative Image Analysis due to Platform-Dependent Image Scaling.
Transl Oncol. 2014 Feb 1;7(1):65-71. eCollection 2014 Feb. PubMed PMID: 24772209;
PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3998685.


10: Ahmed R, Oborski MJ, Hwang M, Lieberman FS, Mountz JM. Malignant gliomas:
current perspectives in diagnosis, treatment, and early response assessment using
advanced quantitative imaging methods. Cancer Manag Res. 2014 Mar 24;6:149-70.
doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S54726. eCollection 2014. Review. PubMed PMID: 24711712; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC3969256.


11: Oborski MJ, Laymon CM, Lieberman FS, Drappatz J, Hamilton RL, Mountz JM.
First use of (18)F-labeled ML-10 PET to assess apoptosis change in a newly
diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme patient before and early after therapy. Brain
Behav. 2014 Mar;4(2):312-5. doi: 10.1002/brb3.217. Epub 2014 Feb 12. PubMed PMID:
24683522; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3967545.


12: Oborski MJ, Demirci E, Laymon CM, Lieberman FS, Mountz JM. Assessment of
early therapy response with 18F-FLT PET in glioblastoma multiforme. Clin Nucl
Med. 2014 Oct;39(10):e431-2. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000000321. PubMed PMID:
24368529.


13: Imani F, Boada FE, Lieberman FS, Davis DK, Mountz JM. Molecular and metabolic
pattern classification for detection of brain glioma progression. Eur J Radiol.
2014 Feb;83(2):e100-5. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2013.06.033. Epub 2013 Nov 20. PubMed
PMID: 24321226; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3923608.


14: Oborski MJ, Laymon CM, Lieberman FS, Mountz JM. Distinguishing
pseudoprogression from progression in high-grade gliomas: a brief review of
current clinical practice and demonstration of the potential value of 18F-FDG
PET. Clin Nucl Med. 2013 May;38(5):381-4. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0b013e318286c148.
PubMed PMID: 23510887; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3880250.


15: Kim S, Holder DL, Laymon CM, Tudorascu DL, Deeb EL, Panigrahy A, Mountz JM.
Clinical value of the first dedicated, commercially available automatic injector
for ictal brain SPECT in presurgical evaluation of pediatric epilepsy: comparison
with manual injection. J Nucl Med. 2013 May;54(5):732-8. doi:
10.2967/jnumed.112.105189. Epub 2013 Mar 14. PubMed PMID: 23492886.
Honors and  
Awards		 1967 - Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society, Wright State Univ.

1969 - Phi Eta Tau Scholastic Honor Society, Wright State Univ.

1988 - U.S. Patent Cert. #4884,566. System and method to determine orientation of planes of imaging in brain

1990 - Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award, Wright State University

1994 - NIH James A. Shannon Directors Award

Castle Connelly Medical Ltd. 2010 Americas Top Doctor, 2010

2011 Edition of Marquis Publishers, Who's Who in America, 2011

Castle Connelly Medical Ltd. 2011 Americas Top Doctor, 2011

Named as one of the Best Doctors in the Nation by Best Doctors, 2011

NIH Medical Imaging Study Section Member (Term from July-1-2011 to June 30-2017), 2011

2011-2014 - Marquis Whos Who in the World

2014 - The Academy of Radiology Research Distinguished Investigator Award (2014)

PubMed Publications   See a listing of publications on PubMed, a service of the National Library of medicine.