Dr. Nereida Ulqini Xhabija | Western Balkans University

Dr. Nereida Ulqini Xhabija

Lecturer
Department of Surgery
Faculty of Technical Medical Sciences
Bio
Education
Publications
Dr. Nereida Ulqini Xhabija, an accomplished Cardiologist, is renowned for her expertise in cardiovascular images, including all major cardiac diseases like: congenital heart disease, endocarditis, cardiomyopathies, hypertension and Coronary Arteries Diseases. 

She has dedicated 30 years of her carrier to the diagnosis, management and prevention of cardiac diseases using non-invasive tools like all types of echocardiograms, MSCT and cardiac MR.

She has worked in various prestigious medical hospitals including University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa”, American Hospital in Albania, University Hospital Center, Bichat- Claude Bernard, in Paris, France, King’s College Hospital, London etc.

In the academic field she has completed with success several trainings and teaching courses, including Salzburg Weill Cornell Seminars in Cardiology and has been an active part of the tutorials in “hands-on” cardiovascular ultrasound sessions for residents cardiologists in Kosovo and Albania. Nereida, is also an important part of several board editorial and peer-review of medical journals in Albania and abroad.
Currently, she is a lecturer at Western Balkan University (WBU) and Head of Clinical Practice for medical students at the American Hospital 2 in Tirana. 

Nereida has published about 35 works and presented at international and national congresses and meetings. Her research interests include especially cardiac images and prevention of cardiac diseases.

She is fluent in three languages:  English, French, and Italian. 

As a member of EACVI and ESC, Nereida continues to contribute significantly to the field of Clinical Cardiology with her publications and active participation in national and international congress and conferences all over the world.
  • 1989 – 1994 - Graduated as General Physician, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tirana
  • 1994–1995 - One year medical stage as Attending Physician at public hospital “Jorgji Karamitri,” Shkoder 
  • 1994–1995 - One year medical stage as Attending Physician at public hospital “Jorgji Karamitri,” Shkoder 
  • January 2000 - Graduated as Cardiologist, Specialist, UHC “Mother Theresa,” Albania
  • 2001 - 2003 - Master in Cardiology, Thesis: “Antiarrhythmic Effects of Valsartan at Aortic Valve Disease”, UHC “Mother Theresa” 
  • 2000 – 2001 - Training in cardiovascular ultrasounds (Echocardiography) at Azienda Ospedaliere Padova (Italy), Grant supported by the European Society of Cardiology
  • 2002 - 2003, Profound Training in Echocardiography (Transesophageal Echo), UHC, Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France
  • May 2008 and December 2011, Salzburg Weill Cornell Seminar in Cardiology and cardiac images, Austria
  • 2009, Cardiology Live Teaching Course, King’s College Hospital, London, Supported by the British Society of Echocardiography), United Kingdom
  • 2010 – 2015, PhD Thesis Title: “Association of Cardiac Calcification and Coronary Artery Disease Detected by 64-Multislice Detector Computed Tomography Coronary Angiography in an Albanian Population”
  • 2016 – on going, Lecturer, Peer-review and consultant at several academic institutions, medical boards and teaching course. Active participator and speaker at different medical and pharmaceuticals round tables between cardiologists and family doctors. 
 “Gerbode ventricular septal defect following endocarditis and misinterpreting as severe
Pulmonary arterial hypertension”, published at Cardiovascular Ultrasound 2010, indexed at PubMed, Impact Factor:1.32
“Calcification de la racine aortique est un indicateur échocardiographique simple de la maladie obstructive des artères coronaires”; - Medical Bulletin des Sciences, 2011
 
Cardiovascular sclerocalcifications- a potential marker of coexisting coronary disease in a low to intermediate risk Albanian population –European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging, Vol. 12, suppl. 2, December 2013.
 
Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Chronic Mountain Sickness: Victim or Villain? Reviewer of Circulation:
Cardiovascular Imaging,Juin 2012.
 
Surgical removal of an Intravenous Leiomyoma with intracardiac Extension and Pulmonary Benign Metastases, published at Heart, Lung and Circulation, Vol.23, Issue 2, February 2014
 
Covid-19 in a patient newly diagnosed with Chronic Lymphotic Leukemia.SOJ Microbiol Infect Dis 8(1); 1-4 2021
 
35 works published and/or presented at international and national congresses and meetings:
 
Oral presentation at Cardiac Imaging Seminar, American Hospital-Medical University Graz; dept. of Radiology and Cardiology, with honored participation of Prof. R. Rienmuller, December 2009.
 
The role of CT angiography in diagnosis of subclinical CAD- our experience, October 2011
 
Oral presentation at Albanian-American surgical conference, with title: Intracardiac pseudotumor caused by caseous mitral annular calcification, November 2011
 
Two Posters presentation at Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT (ICNC11), Berlin, May 2013:
Two abstracts of original contributions of 11th International Conference of Non-invasive Cardiovascular Imaging published at Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, Volume 20, Supplement, May/June 2013
 
Relationship between extracoronary calcium and the extent of coronary artery disease in patients undergoing electron beam coronary scaning- the best poster presentation, with a grant from an international jury at XV-th National Conference of Cardiac Society, December 2012
 
Poster presentation at EuroPrevent 2013, Rome, Italy, with title: Diagnostic value of aortal sclerocalcifications to discriminate a subgroup with higher risk for subclinical CAD; best presentation at this sessionn with a grant and motion: Judge’s Choice, April 2013
 
The pivotal role of TOE in mitral regurgitation of MV repair- Seminar hands-on Transesophageal
Echocardiography, September 2013
 
Non- coronary cardiac calcifications: A measurement that predict subclinic alatherosclerosis- oral presentation at IMCA I, October 2015
 
Prevalence and Clinical Outcome of Mitral Valve Prolapse in an Albanian Population; co-author IMCA II,
September 2016
 
Infective endocarditis in patients with hemodialysis at the American Hospital; co-author at IMCA II, September, 2016
 
Cardiovascular prevention and disease management: A critical role for nursing; key-lecture and oral presentation, at IMCA III, November 2017
 
Body mass index and fasting glucose in apparently healthy patients; co-author at IMCA II, September 2016
 
Hypocalcemia as a cause of heart failure: Case Report; co-author, IMCA III, November 2017
 
Lipid profile in chronic smokers; co-author, IMCA III, November 2017
 
Cardiovascular and echocardiographic assessement after hypertension control during pregnancy; co-author, XXVI; European Congress on Perinatal Medicine, September 2018
 
Cardiac complication of cardiac obesity- December 2020