Jose Rafael Romero, MD
Associate Professor, Neurology

Biography
Dr. Romero completed residency training in neurology at Boston University Medical Campus and fellowship training in vascular neurology at Boston University Medical Campus. He received his medical degree from the Escuela Cololmbiana de Medicina in Colombia. He also completed studies for a Master in Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.
Dr. Romero is an active investigator in the Framingham Heart Study since 2006.
Research Interests
Dr. Romero’s research interests center on the study of cerebrovascular disease in subclinical stages, prevention of stroke, cognitive impairment and dementia and use of neuroimaging in the epidemiological study of cerebrovascular disease. His focus is in the interplay of cerebrovascular disease with the neurodegenerative process, and contributions to clinical stroke and dementia. Much of his current work centers on the epidemiological study of brain MRI markers of cerebral small vessel disease, their determinants and clinical consequences. As a board-certified neurologist and vascular neurologist, his clinical interests are in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients with stroke, with particular emphasis in racial minority populations. He runs a stroke prevention clinic and is an active member in the Stroke Unit at Boston Medical Center. He is the site PI of several clinical trials for acute stroke treatment and secondary prevention. He has written widely on stroke, cerebrovascular disease in subclinical stages, and epidemiology of stroke and dementia. He has participated as study section reviewer in the NIH- and has obtained grant funding from NIH-NIA for his research support. Dr. Romero has presented the results of his research widely at national and international level and has been invited to participate in several international consortia of experts in cerebrovascular disease. Dr. Romero has contributed significantly to our understanding of cerebral microbleeds in the general population and is now leading the study of enlarged perivascular spaces in the Framingham Heart Study cohorts.
Other Positions
- Investigator, Framingham Heart Study
Education
- Escuela Colombiana de Medicina, MD
Publications
- Published on 9/22/2023
Pase MP, Pinheiro A, Rowsthorn E, Demissie S, Hurmez S, Aparicio H, Rodriguez-Lara F, Gonzales MM, Beiser A, DeCarli C, Seshadri S, Romero JR. MRI Visible Perivascular Spaces and the Risk of Incident Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Community Sample. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023 Sep 22. PMID: 37742645.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/14/2023
Rodriguez Lara F, Toro AR, Pinheiro A, Demissie S, Ekenze O, Martinez O, Parva P, Charidimou A, Ghosh S, DeCarli C, Seshadri S, Habes M, Maillard P, Romero JR. Relation of MRI-Visible Perivascular Spaces and Other MRI Markers of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease. Brain Sci. 2023 Sep 14; 13(9). PMID: 37759924.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 5/15/2023
Hingorani KS, Barnes E, Carneiro T, Sader E, Anand P, Ong CJ, Chung D, Daneshmand A, Suchdev K, Takahashi C, Greer D, Shulman JG, Aparicio HJ, Nguyen TN, Romero JR, AbdalKader M, Feske SK, Kimmel SD, Weinstein ZM, Fagan M, Dobrilovic N, Awtry E, Cervantes-Arslanian AM. Strokes in Patients With Injection Drug Use and Tricuspid Valve Endocarditis - A Case Series. Neurohospitalist. 2023 Jul; 13(3):272-277. PMID: 37441214.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/17/2023
Duperron MG, Knol MJ, Le Grand Q, Evans TE, Mishra A, Tsuchida A, Roshchupkin G, Konuma T, Trégouët DA, Romero JR, Frenzel S, Luciano M, Hofer E, Bourgey M, Dueker ND, Delgado P, Hilal S, Tankard RM, Dubost F, Shin J, Saba Y, Armstrong NJ, Bordes C, Bastin ME, Beiser A, Brodaty H, Bülow R, Carrera C, Chen C, Cheng CY, Deary IJ, Gampawar PG, Himali JJ, Jiang J, Kawaguchi T, Li S, Macalli M, Marquis P, Morris Z, Muñoz Maniega S, Miyamoto S, Okawa M, Paradise M, Parva P, Rundek T, Sargurupremraj M, Schilling S, Setoh K, Soukarieh O, Tabara Y, Teumer A, Thalamuthu A, Trollor JN, Valdés Hernández MC, Vernooij MW, Völker U, Wittfeld K, Wong TY, Wright MJ, Zhang J, Zhao W, Zhu YC, Schmidt H, Sachdev PS, Wen W, Yoshida K, Joutel A, Satizabal CL, Sacco RL, Bourque G, Lathrop M, Paus T, Fernandez-Cadenas I, Yang Q, Mazoyer B, Boutinaud P, Okada Y, Grabe HJ, Mather KA, Schmidt R, Joliot M, Ikram MA, Matsuda F, Tzourio C, Wardlaw JM, Seshadri S, Adams HHH, Debette S. Genomics of perivascular space burden unravels early mechanisms of cerebral small vessel disease. Nat Med. 2023 Apr; 29(4):950-962. PMID: 37069360.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 4/3/2023
Charisis S, Rashid T, Liu H, Ware JB, Jensen PN, Austin TR, Li K, Fadaee E, Hilal S, Chen C, Hughes TM, Romero JR, Toledo JB, Longstreth WT, Hohman TJ, Nasrallah I, Bryan RN, Launer LJ, Davatzikos C, Seshadri S, Heckbert SR, Habes M. Assessment of Risk Factors and Clinical Importance of Enlarged Perivascular Spaces by Whole-Brain Investigation in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Apr 03; 6(4):e239196. PMID: 37093602.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/7/2023
Rashid T, Liu H, Ware JB, Li K, Romero JR, Fadaee E, Nasrallah IM, Hilal S, Bryan RN, Hughes TM, Davatzikos C, Launer L, Seshadri S, Heckbert SR, Habes M. Deep Learning Based Detection of Enlarged Perivascular Spaces on Brain MRI. Neuroimage Rep. 2023 Mar; 3(1). PMID: 37035520.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 3/6/2023
Ekenze O, Pinheiro A, Demissie S, Charidimou A, Beiser AS, Vasan RS, Benjamin EJ, DeCarli C, Seshadri S, Romero JR. Inflammatory biomarkers and MRI visible perivascular spaces: The Framingham Heart Study. Neurobiol Aging. 2023 Jul; 127:12-22. PMID: 37018882.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/7/2023
Marini S, Chung J, Han X, Sun X, Parodi L, Farrer LA, Rosand J, Romero JR, Anderson CD. Pleiotropy analysis between lobar intracerebral hemorrhage and CSF ß-amyloid highlights new and established associations. Int J Stroke. 2023 Aug; 18(7):804-811. PMID: 36705426.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/1/2023
Liu M, Khasiyev F, Sariya S, Spagnolo-Allende A, Sanchez DL, Andrews H, Yang Q, Beiser A, Qiao Y, Thomas EA, Romero JR, Rundek T, Brickman A, Manly JJ, Elkind MS, Seshadri S, Chen C, Sacco RL, Hilal S, Wasserman BA, Tosto G, Fornage M, Gutierrez J. Chromosome 10q24.32 Variants Associate with Brain Arterial Diameters in Diverse Populations: A Genome-Wide Association Study. medRxiv. 2023 Feb 01. PMID: 36778463.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/1/2023
Ekenze O, Pinheiro A, Demissie S, Aparicio HJ, Charidimou A, Beiser AS, Satizabal CL, Kautz T, DeCarli C, Greenberg S, Seshadri S, Romero JR. Association of MRI Visible Perivascular Spaces and Neurofilament Light Chain: The Framingham Heart Study. J Alzheimers Dis. 2023; 95(3):1133-1145. PMID: 37661877.
Read at: PubMed
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