# Dudley J. Pennell
**Dudley J. Pennell** is a British cardiologist who has specialized in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) since 1988 and is Emeritus Professor of Cardiology at [Imperial College London](https://www.edgepedia.org/imperial-college-london), Director of the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Unit and Honorary Consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital, and Director of the British Heart Foundation Centre for Advanced Magnetic Resonance In Cardiology (CAMRIC).[1](https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell) He is a GMC registered UK specialist in [Cardiology](https://www.edgepedia.org/cardiology), Nuclear Medicine, and [Radiology](https://www.edgepedia.org/radiology).[1](https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell) According to the Academy of Medical Sciences, which elected him a Fellow in 2014, he has probably contributed the most to establishing cardiovascular magnetic resonance in clinical practice.[2](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Professor-Dudley-Pennell-0009322)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Professor of Cardiology | National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, from 1992; now Emeritus Professor of Cardiology[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) |
| CMR Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital | Director of the unit, established 1984, which runs the largest clinical CMR service in the world[1](https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell) • [4](https://www.rbh-cmr.org/) |
| Specialisation | Cardiovascular MR since 1988[1](https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell) |
| T2* technique | Introduced at Royal Brompton in 1999; a T2* of 10 ms is the internationally used threshold for increased heart-failure risk[5](https://jcmr-online.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/1532-429X-10-42.pdf) • [3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) |
| Clinical impact | 71% reduction in cardiac death from myocardial siderosis in thalassaemia major in the UK since 2008[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) |
| Honours | SCMR gold medal 2012; Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences 2014; NIHR Senior Investigator 2016[6](https://guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/specialists/dudley-pennell/) • [2](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Professor-Dudley-Pennell-0009322) • [7](https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/news/head-heart-assessment-becomes-nihr-senior-investigator) |
| Signature work | "Abnormal Subendocardial Perfusion in Cardiac Syndrome X Detected by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging", New England Journal of Medicine, 2002[8](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa012369) |
## Training and career
Pennell was an undergraduate at [St John's College, Cambridge](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-johns-college-cambridge), and trained in cardiology at [St Thomas' Hospital](https://www.edgepedia.org/st-thomas-hospital), London and the London Chest Hospital.[1](https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell) He became Professor of Cardiology in 1992 and has held that chair since.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) At Royal Brompton Hospital he directs both the CMR unit and the cardiovascular research center.[9](https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/specialists/professor-dudley-pennell) He was instrumental in establishing the hospital's genetics and genomics laboratory, a joint venture between the Trust and Imperial College London.[7](https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/news/head-heart-assessment-becomes-nihr-senior-investigator)
## Representative work
His 2002 New England Journal of Medicine paper, ["Abnormal Subendocardial Perfusion in Cardiac Syndrome X Detected by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging" used adenosine-stress CMR perfusion imaging in about 16 patients with cardiac syndrome X and about 8 matched controls. Adenosine provoked chest pain in 95 percent of patients versus 40 percent of controls (P<0.001). In patients the myocardial perfusion index did not change significantly in the subendocardium during adenosine (0.13±0.02 versus 0.14±0.03, P=0.11), while in controls the subendocardial index rose, supporting a small-resistance-vessel cause of myocardial ischaemia in syndrome X.[8](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa012369) • [10](https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.3-3-273) In his own 2003 review Pennell noted that CMR perfusion imaging has resolution considerably higher than current radionuclide studies, potentially allowing visualization of subendocardial ischaemia.[10](https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.3-3-273) A 2004 European Heart Journal consensus panel report, ["Clinical indications for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR): Consensus Panel report"](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehj.2004.06.040), addresses the clinical indications for CMR.[11](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehj.2004.06.040)
## T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance and iron overload
Work on measuring cardiac iron began in 1998 using the magnetic relaxation parameters T1, T2, and T2*, with T2* proving the most robust and sensitive technique in thalassaemia major patients. The team showed that liver iron and ferritin did not correlate with cardiac iron.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) T2* CMR was introduced at Royal Brompton in 1999.[5](https://jcmr-online.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/1532-429X-10-42.pdf) The work proved that a T2* level of 10 ms was the threshold for increased heart-failure risk, a value now used internationally to treat thalassaemia major patients with aggressive chelation.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) In 2004 NIH funding supported validation of the technique, calibrated against post-mortem hearts from thalassaemia major patients who died of heart failure.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188)
The measurement changed treatment. His 2002 Lancet study compared oral deferiprone with subcutaneous desferrioxamine on myocardial iron concentrations and ventricular function in beta-thalassaemia.[12](https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab814) A major Sardinia study scanned more than 130 patients using a mobile 1.5 Tesla MAGNETOM Sonata scanner and showed oral deferiprone was more effective than injected deferoxamine for treating iron build-up.[9](https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/specialists/professor-dudley-pennell) Two randomised controlled trials in 2004 to 2006 with ApoPharma showed deferiprone removed cardiac iron better than conventional deferoxamine and that combined therapy was synergistic in severe myocardial siderosis; a later randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial found combined deferoxamine and deferiprone outperformed deferoxamine alone in myocardial T2* (ratio of change in geometric means 1.50 versus 1.24; P=0.02), left ventricular ejection fraction (2.6% versus 0.6%; P=0.05) and endothelial function (8.8% versus 3.3%; P=0.02).[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) • [13](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.648790) Since 2008 these advances have produced a 71% reduction in cardiac death from myocardial siderosis in thalassaemia major in the UK; hospital biographies credit the techniques with an 80% reduction in mortality and adoption in over 50 countries.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188) • [6](https://guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/specialists/dudley-pennell/) An independent review records that UK mortalities for beta-thalassaemia major decreased by more than 70% in the ten years after the technique's introduction.[14](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4898490/)
## Roles, honors and industry links
In 2012 the [Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance](https://www.edgepedia.org/society-for-cardiovascular-magnetic-resonance) awarded Pennell its gold medal for outstanding achievement in CMR and exemplary service.[6](https://guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/specialists/dudley-pennell/) He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014, then as Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit at the National Heart and [Lung Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/lung-institute).[2](https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Professor-Dudley-Pennell-0009322) In May 2016 Royal Brompton announced his NIHR senior investigator award, for a four-year term, as director of the NIHR cardiovascular biomedical research unit and the Trust's CMR unit.[7](https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/news/head-heart-assessment-becomes-nihr-senior-investigator) He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance for 12 years and became Deputy Editor of JACC Cardiovascular Imaging.[6](https://guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/specialists/dudley-pennell/) Industry involvement documented in the record is as a trial investigator: a Novartis-funded trial (2007 to 2010, £300,000) with Pennell as principal investigator compared oral deferasirox with deferoxamine in transfusion-dependent iron overload, alongside the ApoPharma trials.[3](https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188)
## Recent developments
Pennell is the corresponding author of a 2021 [European Heart Journal](https://www.edgepedia.org/european-heart-journal) article on reducing mortality by myocardial T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance at national level.[12](https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab814) • [17](https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab814) He is a listed author of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance guidelines for reporting CMR examinations, which recommend reporting septal native myocardial T2* and T1 as decreased or normal with the value.[15](https://events.scmr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Reporting-CMR.pdf) The T2* technique itself continues to be refined: a 2025 study found dark-blood CMR T2* more stable and reliable than bright-blood T2* for assessing myocardial iron load in thalassaemia major patients, recommending it especially at 3 T.[16](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1608870/full)
## References
1. Dudley Pennell | About | Imperial College London, https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/d.pennell
2. Professor Dudley Pennell FMedSci, The Academy of Medical Sciences, https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Professor-Dudley-Pennell-0009322
3. REF Case study: Development of a cardiac magnetic resonance technique to quantify myocardial iron concentration, https://impact.ref.ac.uk/casestudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=42188
4. RBH CMR Unit, https://www.rbh-cmr.org/
5. Improved survival of thalassaemia major in the UK and relation to T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance (JCMR, 2008), https://jcmr-online.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/1532-429X-10-42.pdf
6. Professor Dudley Pennell, Guy's and St Thomas' Specialist Care biography, https://guysandstthomasspecialistcare.co.uk/specialists/dudley-pennell/
7. Head of heart assessment becomes NIHR senior investigator (Royal Brompton, 2016), https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/news/head-heart-assessment-becomes-nihr-senior-investigator
8. Abnormal Subendocardial Perfusion in Cardiac Syndrome X Detected by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NEJM, 2002), https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa012369
9. Professor Dudley Pennell | Royal Brompton & Harefield hospitals, https://www.rbht.nhs.uk/specialists/professor-dudley-pennell
10. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance: twenty-first century solutions in cardiology (Clinical Medicine, 2003), https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmedicine.3-3-273
11. Clinical indications for cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR): Consensus Panel report (European Heart Journal, 2004), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehj.2004.06.040
12. Reducing mortality by myocardial T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance at national level (European Heart Journal, 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab814
13. A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Trial of Combined Deferoxamine and Deferiprone on Myocardial Iron in Thalassemia Major Using CMR (Circulation), https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.648790
14. Practical applications of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (PMC review), https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4898490/
15. SCMR guidelines for reporting cardiovascular magnetic resonance examinations, https://events.scmr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Reporting-CMR.pdf
16. Comparative assessments of myocardial iron load in thalassemia patients between dark blood and bright blood MRI T2* techniques (Frontiers in Medicine, 2025), https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1608870/full
17. 40yp4lpnwjm (exa.ai). https://exa.ai/library/publication/40yp4lpnwjm
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Medical and health researchers › Researchers in cardiovascular, metabolic, and endocrine research › Cardiac imaging researchers*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Sep 30, 2026*
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