Left: Gregg Rapoport of the University
of Georgia and Ilana Kutinsky perform
a cardiac exam outside at the Limbe
Wildlife Center in Cameroon. An
umbrella has become another good tool
to block the sun off the ultrasound
machine screen. And its stylish.

Below: Pam Dennis and Ilana Kutinsky
review the results from blood tests
on some of the animals at the Limbe
Wildlife Center.

I

Electrophysiologist uses her skills
to improve the health of great apes.
Judy Greenwald
/
Special to the Jewish News

I

f you called Dr. Ilana Kutinsky a super
doctor, she'd smile and modestly deny
this accolade.
However, Kutinsky is a member of the
Michigan Heart Group (MHG) in Troy,
on staff at Beaumont Hospital in Troy and
Royal Oak, and clinical assistant professor
at Oakland University's School of Medicine.
She is one of only five female electrophys-
iologists in Michigan. "Electrophysiology
is a subspecialty of cardiology:' Kutinsky
explains. "I work with people with cardiac
rhythm disorders. If someone's heart rate is
too slow, I speed it up with a pacemaker or
defibrillator; too fast, and I do a procedure
known as ablation, which uses different
types of energy like radio frequencies or
laser to slow arrhythmias."
She's also a co-founder of the Gorilla
Cardiac Database, part of the Great Ape
Heart Project (GAHP), which is collecting
data from zoos from around the world to
learn about diagnosing, monitoring and
treating cardiovascular disease in these
animals.

Early Influences

Now living in Orchard Lake, but born and
raised in Farmington Hills, Kutinsky, 44,
had a positive role model in her early life.
"I grew up next door to Florine Mark,
and she was such a wonderful example of a
strong, successful woman" she says.
That influence served Kutinsky well,
for she graduated summa cum laude from
Michigan State University's College of
Osteopathic Medicine in 1994. She then
moved to Colorado, where she completed
an internal medicine residency at St. Joseph
Hospital in Denver from 1995-98, and then

16

April 25 • 2013

Limbe's head vet John Kiyang is getting some lessons on ultrasounding hearts
from GAHP's Ilana Kutinsky, while vet tech Akih Emmanuel monitors chimpanzee
Margaret's vitals.

a cardiology fellowship in cardiovascular
medicine and electrophysiology at the
University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center from 1998-2002.
Kutinsky has been married nine years
to Michael Brager, an orthopedic surgeon
at St. Mary's in Livonia, and is bringing
up two daughters, Charlotte, 61/2, and
Delaney, 3. The family attends services at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield.
She says she always wanted to be a doctor
who specialized in the heart.
As a kid, my dad was an internist, and
I'd read EKGs with him. I was drawn to
the rhythm side of cardiology ... it was a
natural fit" she says. "Typically, cardiolo-
gists deal mostly with older people. I've had
patients as young as 14 and as old as 100.

Electrophysiology is treatment-oriented,
and it's a nice feeling to be able to fix prob-
lems:'
One of her most rewarding cases, she
says, involved a 16-year-old who had clini-
cally "died" playing basketball at school.
Doctors were able to resuscitate him, but
feared he might be brain-dead and wouldn't
recover.
"He did recover" Kutinsky shares, "and
we implanted a defibrillator in him, and
he's been doing well over the years. Now,
we just found out he's getting married this
summer, and several of my partners and I
will be going to his wedding. Saving lives is
amazing"

Working With Great Apes
Her involvement in cardiac care led to a
very important association: her involvement
in the Great Ape Heart Project.
When she was doing her fellowship in
Colorado back in 1999-2000, working on
her echocardiography rotation, learning
how to perform and process echocardio-
grams (heart ultrasounds), the phone rang
one day.
"It was the Denver Zoo, wanting to know
if we could do echoes on the gorillas. I
thought that was awesome! It was a case of
being in the right place at the right time,
just luck that I was the one who answered
the call," Kutinsky says.
At the same time, the Species Survival
Program, a governing body of zoos, had
recommended that all great apes receive
cardiac evaluations as cardiac disease is a
leading cause of death among apes.
The project, based at Zoo Atlanta, which
provides generous funding, is collecting
data from zoos around the world to learn
about diagnosing, monitoring and treating
cardiovascular disease in these animals.
"We organized a team, including an anes-
thetist and someone to supply the echocar-
diogram machine, and went to the Denver
Zoo" Kutinsky says.
The team was able to do surface echoes
on the gorillas, which provided excellent
images.
"With the first echo, we realized the read-
ing might be abnormal, so we asked the vet
at the zoo, and he wasn't able to tell what
was normal or not for the animal" she says.
"When you do a test, you need to know how
to interpret and, subsequently, how to treat.
But there was no data around as to what
was normal or abnormal for apes"
The team continued to do ultrasounds.
They performed a test on a female orang-
utan, who died during the study due to
complications from anesthesia. Fueled by

A Doctor With Heart on page 18

