Erin E. O'Connor, MD

University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
College of Arts and Letters, Bachelor of Arts
Magna Cum Laude

SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse, College of Medicine
Syracuse, New York
Doctor of Medicine

University of Chicago, Department of Internal Medicine
Chicago, Illinois
Internship

University of Chicago, Department of Radiology
Chicago, Illinois
Residency

Northwestern University Medical Center, Section of Neuroradiology
Chicago, Illinois
Fellowship

After completing her fellowship in neuroradiology, Dr. O'Connor began her academic radiology as a neuroradiologist at Temple University School of Medicine (TUSM), focusing on educational research. TUSM serves an underprivileged population with a high HIV incidence. Many of these patients had neuropsychological complaints; however, few imaging findings on conventional structural MRI explained these symptoms. Her interest in exploring alternative neuroimaging methods with HIV infected patients arose from the discordance between the clinical imaging findings and cognitive deficits that she observed in her clinical practice.
Dr. O'Connor received a seed grant from the Developmental Core of the Comprehensive NeuroAIDS Center (CNAC) (NIMH Grant P30) at TUSM to study the longitudinal effects of HIV on brain structure and function. As the PI, she collected pilot longitudinal rs-fMRI, DTI, and sMRI data, as well as clinical and behavioral data. The unique feature of this longitudinal study is the participant enrollment prior to ART initiation with follow-up examinations at 3 and 6 months after ART initiation. More recently she studied sex differences in HIV associated white matter microstructural changes as a potential mechanism of greater sensorimotor deficits in HIV infected women.
Dr. O'connor also has studied HIV associated macrostructural changes which include lower global white matter volume; her work emphasizes isolating serostatus effects from confounders such as advancing age, comorbidities, substance use, and hepatis C co-infection. She recently received a K23 career development award focusing on using multimodal neuroimaging and clinical features to predict the trajectory of subsequent neuropsychological performance, adjusting for age, HCV co-infection, ART type, systemic inflammation, and CVD risk.
Dr. O'Connor's LANTERN lab (Lab of Translational Neuroradiology) focuses on imaging predictors of neuropsychological effects in neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative and neurovascular disorders. Since much of clinical neuroradiology still relies on standard structural MRI as its main diagnostic and prognostic tool, the LANTERN Lab focuses on integration of advanced neuroimaging methods into radiologic diagnosis and prediction in clinical practice.

Neuroimaging, Neuroradiology, Neurovirology, HIV infection, Stroke

Skidmore ER, Shih M, Terhorst L, O'Connor EE. Lesion location may attenuate response to strategy training in acute stroke. PM&R. 2021 Mar 17;. doi: 10.1002/pmrj.12590.

Sicilia A, Zhao X, Minhas D, O’Connor EE, Aizenstein H, Klunk W, Tudorascu DL, Hwang SJ. Multi-Domain Learning by Meta-Learning: Taking Optimal Steps in Multi-Domain Loss Landscapes by Inner-Loop Learning. IEEE, in press.

Zhao X, Sicilia A, Minhas D, O’Connor EE, Aizenstein H, Klunk W, Tudorascu DL, Hwang SJ. Robust White Matter Hyperintensity Segmentation on Unseen Domain. IEEE, in press.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA, Lopez O, Becker JT. Differential Effects of AIDS and HIV Disease on Gray Matter Volume. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2020.

Chelala L*, O’Connor EE*, Barker PB, Zeffiro TA. Brain Metabolite Changes Measured with MRS in HIV Infection: a Meta-analysis. Neuroimage: Clinical, 2020.

Ighani M, Jonas S, Izbudak I, Choi S, Hua J, O’Connor EE, and Harrison DM. No Association between Cortical Lesions and Leptomeningeal Enhancement on 7-Tesla MRI in Multiple Sclerosis. Multiple Sclerosis, 2020.

Ding T, Cohen AD, O’Connor EE, Karim H, Crainiceanu A, Muschelli J, Lopez OL, Klunk WE, Aizenstein HJ, Krafty R, Crainiceanu C, Tudorascu D. An Improved Algorithm of White Matter Hyperintensity Detection in Elderly Adults. Neuroimage: Clinical, 2020.

Liang H, O’Connor EE, Ernst T, Oishi K, Cunningham E, Chang L. Greater Sensorimotor Deficits and Abnormally Lower Globus Pallidus Fractional Anisotropy in HIV+ Women than in HIV+ Men. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 2020.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA, Lopez O, Becker JT. Differential Effects of AIDS and HIV Disease on Gray Matter Volume. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2020.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA. Is Treated HIV Still Toxic to the Brain? Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science, 2019.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA, Lopez OL, Becker JT, Zeffiro TA. HIV Infection and Age Effects on Striatal Structure are Additive. Journal of Neurovirology, 2019.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA. Why is Clinical fMRI in a Resting State? Frontiers in Neurology, 2019.

Abutaleb A, Kattakuzhy S, Kottilil S, O’Connor EE, Wilson E. Mechanisms of Neuropathogenesis in HIV and HCV: Similarities, Differences, and Unknowns. Journal of Neurovirology, 2018.

O'Connor EE, Chen P, Anderson R, Weston B, Zeffiro TA, Ahmed A, Zeffiro TA. Gender Trends in Academic Radiology Publication in the United States Revisited. Academic Radiology, 2018.

O’Connor EE, Zeffiro TA, Zeffiro TA. Brain Structural Changes Following HIV Infection: Meta-analysis. American Journal of Neuroradiology, 2018.

O’Connor EE, Jaillard A, Renard F, Zeffiro TA. Brain Microstructural Changes in HIV Infection: A Meta-analysis and Confirmation Study. American Journal of Neuroradiology, August 2017.

De Patre D, Van de Winckel A, Panté F, Rizzello C, Zernitz M, Mansour M, Zordan L, Zeffiro T, O’Connor E, Bisson T, Lupi A, Perfetti C. A Case Report of Visual and Motor Recovery after Cognitive Sensorimotor Rehabilitation (Perfetti’s Method) in a Patient with Cortical Blindness. Journal of Neurologic and Physical Therapy, July 2017.

Chapman T, Reid J, O’Connor EE.  The Importance of Combined Teaching Methods is Radiology Resident Education. Academic Radiology, June 2017.

Chapman T, Reid J, O’Connor EE.  Anonymity and Electronics: Adapting Preparation for Radiology Resident Examination. Academic Radiology, March 2017.

O’Connor EE, Cousar M, Lentini JA, Castillo M, Zeffiro TA.  Efficacy of Double-blind Peer Review in a Subspecialty Journal. American Journal of Neuroradiology, February 2017.

O’Connor EE, Fried J, McNulty N, Shah P, Hogg JP, Lewis P, Zeffiro T, Agarwal V, Reddy S.  Flipping Radiology Education Right Side Up.  Academic Radiology, July 2016.

Cunningham R, Shah PS, Carabelli E, Barakat N, O’Connor E, Luo JJ.  3D MRI - Diagnostic, Dynamic and Diffusion Tensor Evaluation of Hirayama Disease. Neurological Cases, 2014.

Curran, JG, O’Connor E,  Imaging of Craniopharyngioma.  Childs Nervous System, 2005.

O’Connor EE, Dixon, LB, Peabody, TD, Stacy, GS.  MRI of Cystic and Soft Tissue Masses of the Shoulder Joint. American Journal of Roentgenology, 2004.

*contributed equally to the article