In Memory of a Pioneer in Radiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Professor Paul Romaniuk, MD, PhD (January 2, 1937 – September 21, 2024)
In memoriam – Prof. Paul Romaniuk
Paul Romaniuk was born on January 2, 1937 in the Berlin Brandenburg Metropolitan Aera of Germany. During the difficult post-war years, he received instruction in mathematics, English, painting, and music (violin) from 1944 to 1947. After graduating from college, he went to medical school at Charité (Medical School of the Humboldt University in Berlin) – known for its three hundred years of medical history and home to 29 Nobel laureates – until 1961, when he was granted his medical license in Berlin. From 1961 to 1962, he was a medical intern the Department of Pediatrics, II. Department of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as the Trauma Surgery Department at Charité University Hospital. In 1962, he received his doctoral degree from the Medical Faculty of Humboldt University in Berlin with his dissertation, “Investigations on the Analgesic Effects of Benzimidazole Derivatives.” From 1963 to 1966, he completed his residency in Radiology at the University Radiology Institute and the Oncology Department at Charité. In 1977, he submitted his habilitation thesis on “Angiocardiographic and Hemodynamic Diagnostics of Chronic Ischemic Heart Disease,” receiving the venia legendi for the fields of Diagnostic Radiology, Cardiovascular Diagnostics, and Invasive Cardiology. As a board-certified specialist, he joined the newly founded Institute for Cardiovascular Diagnostics at Charité in 1966. He continuously served as head of research there and was acting chief from 1981 to 1982 and 1991 to 1993 until the institute was dissolved. In 1990, at the request of Charité Medical School Dean Harald Mau (1941–2020), he developed a concept for the realignment of cardiovascular medicine at Charité. In 1983, he was promoted to associate professor in Diagnostic Radiology, Cardiovascular Radiology, Interventional Radiology, and Invasive Cardiology, and in 1993 to full university professor in Interventional Radiology, leading the corresponding Division at the Radiology Institute at Charité until his retirement.
Angiocardiography and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), now routine methods used by cardiologists, were developed, and conducted by radiologists over decades. The Institute for Cardiovascular Diagnostics at Charité played a key role in this development. On September 13, 1977, Paul Romaniuk was part of the Charité team, alongside Werner Porstmann (1921–1982) and Lech Wierny (1928–2010), who attempted the world’s first coronary balloon angioplasty on a previously angiocardiographically depicted severe LAD stenosis. However, they had to abort the procedure due to an unexpected occlusion of the target vessel. Andreas Grüntzig’s team in Zurich successfully completed the procedure just four days later, on September 16, 1977.
Several visiting professorships took him to many prestigious institutions in his field worldwide, including Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard University in Boston, Cornell University in New York City, University of Oregon in Portland, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the University of Texas Heart Institute, and the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Paul significantly influenced radiology and cardiovascular medicine, not only at Charité but also in various national and international professional societies, including the Berlin Radiology Society, German Radiological Society (DRG), Berlin-Brandenburg Working Group for Heart and Circulatory Research (BBGK), German Society for Cardiology, Heart and Circulatory Research (DGK), and last not least the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE). He served also as an associate editor of leading journals such as “Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology.” His work is documented in more than two hundred original articles, numerous book chapters, books, and educational films.
His contributions received broad national and international recognition. In 1977, he received the Roentgen Prize, and in 1979, he was awarded the National Prize (akin to the Federal Cross of Merit today) for Science and Technology for “Developing Cardiac Catheterization,” followed by numerous research awards from Humboldt University for “Developing Interventional Radiological Procedures for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Intracardiac Manipulations,” “Developing Heart Muscle Biopsy for Heart Transplantation,” and “Quantitative Determination of Myocardial Perfusion and Calculation of the Collateralization Grade.” The methods he developed (e.g., intracardiac pressure measurement) and instruments (e.g., torsion-stable guidewires, septostomy and other cutting instruments, safety biopsy forceps, recanalization catheters, and microembolization spirals) were patented internationally. In 1981, he received an offer for a university professorship at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, and in 1989, an offer from the Department of Cardiovascular Radiology at Stanford University, California, USA. He was unable to accept either, due to intervention by the former East German authorities.
He trained several interventional radiologists at Charité. His curiosity in exploring new ways of treatment, his patience in training new fellows, and his kindness and warmth as a person have inspired many. We will remember him with gratitude as a pioneer in radiology and cardiovascular medicine, an outstanding physician, scientist, family man, and respected colleague.
– Prof. Dr. Thomas Kröncke
– Dr. med. Dipl.-Phys. Jan Petersein