Attilio Maseri OMRI KSG (12 November 1935 – 3 September 2021) was an Italian academic and physician specialized in cardiology, considered a leading researcher in the field of ischemic heart disease.
In 1979 he was appointed professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School of the University of London and director of cardiology at Hammersmith Hospital.
[1] Since 2008 he was president of the Fondazione per il Tuo Cuore (Heart Care Foundation), a division of ANMCO (the Italian Cardiological Association), which he co-founded in 1998.
[6] During his time in Pisa he pioneered the use of radioactive tracers, and later developed methods using positron emission tomography to study both blood flow and energy use in the heart.
In other studies, he demonstrated that vasoconstriction and thrombosis are jointly responsible for ischemic attacks in patients with acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina.
[1] After moving to Milan, he continued his clinical research using newer techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance and computer tomography to explore cardiac and coronary function.
[9] In 2004 he accepted the Grand Prix scientifique de la Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande for clinical investigations of vasomotor function in angina pectoris.