Nicolaus A. Wagner-Bartak, M.D.
Department of Abdominal Imaging, Division of Diagnostic Imaging
About Dr. Wagner-Bartak
Dr. Nicolaus Wagner-Bartak joined MD Anderson Cancer Center as Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology, Section of Abdominal Imaging, in 2010 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2016. Dr. Wagner-Bartak is co-Section Chief, ad interim, of Abdominal Imaging at MD Anderson, overseeing the section's clinical operations and faculty affairs.
Dr. Wagner-Bartak graduated from the University of Virginia followed by medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his internship in medicine and surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia, diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Texas in Houston, and fellowship in Abdominal Imaging and Intervention at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He received his board certification in Diagnostic Radiology from the American Board of Radiology in 2009.
Dr. Wagner-Bartak's clinical and research interests include CT technique optimization for abdominopelvic applications, including tailoring the examination to the patient's needs and oncologic history, improving exam sensitivity and specificity, CT radiation dose optimization, and lymphoma imaging. He is involved in multiple hypothesis-driven research projects, both as a PI and a collaborator and serves as a consultant in the Lymphoma treatment planning clinic. In the area of inter-departmental collaborative research, he is the radiologist lead on multiple ongoing clinical trials, the majority of which involve assessing tumor response to novel chemotherapeutic regimens and targeted cancer therapy.
Dr. Wagner-Bartak mentors and teaches medical students, radiology residents, and fellows from UT Health Science Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and MD Anderson.
Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Deputy Chair ad interim, Department of Abdominal Imaging, Department of Department of Abdominal Imaging, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Associate Professor, Department of Abdominal Imaging, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Research Interests
CT technique optimization for abdominopelvic applications in patients with cancer
Diagnostic imaging quality improvement
Clinical Interests
Multimodality oncologic imaging
Tumor response assessment
Lymphoma imaging
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2004 | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA, MD, Medicine |
| 1999 | University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, BS, Chemistry with Specialization in Biological Chemistry |
| 1999 | University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA, BA, German Language and Literature |
Postgraduate Training
| 2009-2010 | Clinical Fellowship, Abdominal Imaging and Intervention, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA |
| 2005-2009 | Clinical Residency, Diagnostic & Interventional Imaging, The University of Texas- Houston Medical School, Houston, TX |
| 2004-2005 | Transitional Internship, Surgery, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA |
Board Certifications
| 2009 | American Board of Radiology |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2016 - 2019
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Co-Section Chief, ad interim, Abdominal Imaging, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2019 - 2019
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Morani AC, Jensen CT, Habra MA, Agrons MM, Menias CO, Wagner-Bartak NA, Shaaban AM, Roman-Colon AM, Elsayes KM. Adrenocortical hyperplasia: A review of clinical presentation and imaging. Abdom Radiol (NY) 45(4):917-927, 2020. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31093730.
- Jensen CT, Wagner-Bartak NA, Vu LN, Liu X, Raval B, Martinez D, Wei W, Cheng Y, Samei E, Gupta S. Detection of colorectal hepatic metastases is superior at standard radiation dose CT versus reduced dose CT. Radiology 290(2):181657, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30480489.
- Jensen CT, Blair KJ, Wagner-Bartak NA, Vu LN, Carter BW, Sun J, Bathala TK, Gupta S. Comparison of abdominal computed tomographic enhancement and organ lesion depiction between weight-based scanner software contrast dosing and a fixed-dose protocol in a tertiary care oncologic center. J Comput Assist Tomogr 43(1):155-162, 2019. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 30211799.
- Goodenberger MH, Wagner-Bartak NA, Gupta S, Liu X, Yap RQ, Sun J, Tamm EP, Jensen CT. Computed tomography image quality evaluation of a new iterative reconstruction algorithm in the abdomen (Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction-V) a comparison with model-based iterative reconstruction, adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction, and filtered back projection reconstructions. J Comput Assist Tomogr 42(2):184-190, 2018. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28806318.
- Jensen CT, Blair KJ, Le O, Sun J, Wei W, Korivi BR, Morani AC, Wagner-Bartak NA. Utility of CT oral contrast administration in the emergency department of a quaternary oncology hospital: diagnostic implications, turnaround times, and assessment of ED physician ordering. Abdom Radiol (NY) 42(11):2760-2768, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28523416.
- Michelle MA, Jensen CT, Habra MA, Menias CO, Shaaban AM, Wagner-Bartak NA, Roman-Colon AM, Elsayes KM. Adrenal cortical hyperplasia: diagnostic workup, subtypes, imaging features and mimics. Br J Radiol 90(1079):20170330, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28707538.
- Jensen CT, Chahin A, Amin VD, Khalaf AM, Elsayes KM, Wagner-Bartak N, Zhao B, Zhou S, Bedi DG. Qualitative slow blood flow in lower extremity deep veins on Doppler ultrasound: quantitative assessment and preliminary evaluation of correlation with subsequent DVT development in a tertiary care oncology center. J Ultrasound Med 36(9):1867-1874, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28470976.
- Telesmanich ME, Jensen CT, Enriquez JL, Wagner-Bartak NA, Liu X, Le O, Wei W, Chandler AG, Tamm EP. Third version of vendor-specific model-based iterative reconstruction (Veo 3.0): evaluation of CT image quality in the abdomen using new noise reduction presets and varied slice optimization. Br J Radiol 90(1077):20170188, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28707531.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Baiomy A, Habra MA, Mukhi SV, Morani AC, Korivi BR, Waguespack SG, Elsayes KM. Cushing syndrome: diagnostic workup and imaging features, with clinical and pathologic correlation. AJR Am J Roentgenol 209(1):19-32, 2017. PMID: 28639924.
- Cox VL, Bhosale P, Varadhachary GR, Wagner-Bartak N, Glitza IC, Gold KA, Atkins JT, Soliman PT, Hong DS, Qayyum A. Cancer genomics and important oncologic mutations: a contemporary guide for body imagers. Radiology 283(2):314-340, 2017. PMID: 28418819.
- Jensen CT, Telesmanich ME, Wagner-Bartak NA, Liu X, Rong J, Szklaruk J, Qayyum A, Wei W, Chandler AG, Tamm EP. Evaluation of abdominal computed tomography image quality using a new version of vendor-specific model-based iterative reconstruction. J Comput Assist Tomogr 41(1):67-74, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27529683.
- Gupta S, Wagner-Bartak N, Jensen CT, Hui A, Wei W, Lertdilok P, Qayyum A, Tamm EP. Dual-energy CT of pancreatic adenocarcinoma: reproducibility of primary tumor measurements and assessment of tumor conspicuity and margin sharpness. Abdom Radiol (NY) 41(7):1317-1324, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 26956643.
- Yedururi S, Kang HC, Wei W, Wagner-Bartak NA, Marcal LP, Stafford RJ, Willis BJ, Szklaruk J. Free-breathing radial volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination vs breath-hold cartesian volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination magnetic resonance imaging of the liver at 1.5T. World J Radiol 8(7):707-715, 2016. PMID: 27551341.
- Wang ML, Lee H, Chuang H, Wagner-Bartak N, Hagemeister F, Westin J, Fayad L, Samaniego F, Turturro F, Oki Y, Chen W, Badillo M, Nomie K, DeLa Rosa M, Zhao D, Lam L, Addison A, Zhang H, Young KH, Li S, Santos D, Medeiros LJ, Champlin R, Romaguera J, Zhang L. Ibrutinib in combination with rituximab in relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma: a single-centre, open-label, phase 2 trial. Lancet Oncol 17(1):48-56, 2016. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26640039.
- Bhosale P, Wagner-Bartak N, Wei W, Kundra V, Tamm E. Comparing CNR, SNR, and image quality of CT images reconstructed with soft kernel, standard kernel, and standard kernel plus ASIR 30% technique. Int J Radiol 2(2):60-65, 2015.
- Jensen CT, Vicens-Rodriguez RA, Wagner-Bartak NA, Fox PS, Faria SC, Carrion I, Qayyum A, Tamm EP. Multidetector CT detection of peritoneal metastases: evaluation of sensitivity between standard 2.5 mm axial imaging and maximum-intensity-projection (MIP) reconstructions. Abdom Imaging 40(7):2167-2172, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25666971.
- Wang M, Fowler N, Wagner-Bartak N, Feng L, Romaguera J, Neelapu SS, Hagemeister F, Fanale M, Oki Y, Pro B, Shah J, Thomas S, Younes A, Hosing C, Zhang L, Newberry KJ, Desai M, Cheng N, Badillo M, Bejarano M, Chen Y, Young KH, Champlin R, Kwak L, Fayad L. Oral lenalidomide with rituximab in relapsed or refractory diffuse large cell, follicular, and transformed lymphoma: a phase II clinical trial. Leukemia 27(9):1902-1909, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23545991.
- Wang M, Fayad L, Wagner-Bartak N, Zhang L, Hagemeister F, Neelapu SS, Samaniego F, McLaughlin P, Fanale M, Younes A, Cabanillas F, Fowler N, Newberry KJ, Sun L, Young KH, Champlin R, Kwak L, Feng L, Badillo M, Bejarano M, Hartig K, Chen W, Chen Y, Byrne C, Bell N, Zeldis J, Romaguera J. Lenalidomide in combination with rituximab for patients with relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma: a phase 1/2 clinical trial. Lancet Oncol 13(7):716-723, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22677155.
- Stein L, Elsayes KM, Wagner-Bartak N. Subcutaneous abdominal wall masses: radiological reasoning. AJR Am J Roentgenol 198(2):W146-W151, 2012. PMID: 22268204.
- Tam A, Wagner-Bartak NA, Wallace MJ, Murthy R. Liver abscess after inadvertent transhepatic transgression during percutaneous fluoroscopy-guided gastrostomy. Clin Radiol 63(6):731-735, 2008. e-Pub 2007. PMID: 18455567.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Levine MS, Rubesin SE, Laufer I, Rombeau JL, Lichtenstein GR. Crohn's disease in the ileal pouch after total colectomy for ulcerative colitis: findings on pouch enemas in six patients. AJR Am J Roentgenol 184(6):1843-1847, 2005. PMID: 15908540.
- Korivi BR, Faria S, Aly A, Sun J, Patnana M, Jensen CT, Wagner-Bartak N, Bhosale PR. Intestinal and diffuse gastric cancer: A retrospective study comparing primary sites. Clin Imaging 56:33-40. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30870726.
Invited Articles
- Le O, Tamm E, Wagner-Bartak NA, Bhosale P, Patnana M, Vikram R, Qayyum A. An update of clinical CT imaging of pancreatic neoplasm - tips, tricks, and pitfalls. Curr Radiol Rep 3(22), 2015.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Toshav AM, Tamm EP, Le O, Agarwal S, Ng C, Qayyum A. CT liver imaging: what is new?. Curr Radiol Rep 3(7), 2015. e-Pub 2015.
Abstracts
- Glober G, Gunther J, Milgrom S, Rao Korivi B, Jensen CT, Wagner-Bartak N, Lee H, Ahmed S, Nair R, Steiner R, Iyer S, Westin J, Fayad L, Rodriguez A, Neelapu S, Nastoupil L, Dabaja B, Pinnix C. Limited Utility of PET-CT and CT Imaging Beyond Treatment Completion in Limited Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 105(1):E476, 2019.
- Jain P, Romaguera J, Nomie K, Zhang S, Wang L, Oriabure O, Wagner-Bartak N, Zhang L, Hagemeister F, Samaniego F, Westin J, Ju Lee H, Nastoupil L, Iyer S, Parmar S, Ok C, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Chen W, Thirumurthi S, Santos D, Badillo M, Fayad L, Neelapu S, Fowler N, Wang M. Combination of ibrutinib with rituximab (IR) is highly effective in elderly (>65 years) patients (pts) with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) - phase II trial. Hematological Oncology 15th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, Hematol Oncol 37(S2):42-42, 2019.
- Bathala TK, Wagner-Bartak NA, Jensen CT, Vadhan-Raj S, Wei W, Iyer R, Qayyum A, Steele J. Does delayed phase post-contrast CT imaging of the kidneys and bladder add value in the CT imaging assessment of patients with a hematological malignancy?. American College of Radiology Annual Meeting, 2017.
- Faria S, Rao-Korivi B, Wagner-Bartak NA, Jensen CT, Bhosale P. Lymphoma: multimodality spectrum of imaging findings and its differential diagnosis. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting, 2017.
- Wang Y, Wagner-Bartak NA, Zhou S, Fowler N, Dela Rosa ML, Zhao D, Romaguera JE, Neelapu S, Hagemeister FB, Fanale MA, Oki Y, Shah JJ, Thomoas SK, Hosing CM, Zhang L, Badillo M, Chen W, Cai Q, Zou D, Champlin RE, Fayad LE, Le HJ, Wang M. Lenalidomide plus rituximab for relapsed or refractory diffuse large b-cell, follicular and transformed lymphoma: final data analysis of a phase 2 trial. 57th ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition, 2015.
- Gupta S, Wagner-Bartak NA, Jensen C, Lertdilok P, Wei W, Hui A, Qayyum A, Tamm E.. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma on dual-energy CT: reproducibility of inter-reader tumor measurements and assessments of tumor conspicuity. Annual Meeting of the Society of Abdominal Radiology, 2015.
- Patnana M, Balachandran A, Vikram R, Sagebiel TL, Wagner-Bartak NA, Bhosale PR. Multimodality pitfalls in abdominal imaging. European Society of Gastrointestinal and Abdominal, 2014.
- Elsayes KM, Shaaban MS, Ahmed K, Wagner-Bartak NA, Vicens-Rodriguez RA, Menias CO. Pitfalls of female pelvis on cross sectional imaging. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2014.
- Cody D, Tamm E, Wagner-Bartak NA, Patel MP, Liu X, Jensen CT, Rong J. A clinical approach to adjusting noise index with respect to patient size to obtain consistent image quality in CT. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2013.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Jensen CT, Rong XJ, Paulson EK, Cody DD, Tamm EP. CT model-based iterative reconstruction technique: pearls, pitfalls, and practical solutions. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2013.
- Jensen CT, Wagner-Bartak NA, Patel MP, Rong XJ, Paulson EK, Tamm EP. Model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) implementation: process description and lessons learned. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2013.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Jensen CT, Rong XJ, Punzalan J, Paulson EK, Cody DD, Tamm EP. CT model-based iterative reconstruction: pearls, pitfalls and practical solutions. Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance, 2013.
- Jensen CT, Wagner-Bartak NA, Rong XJ, Liu X, Cody DD, Paulson EK, Tamm EP. Veo (MBIR) implementation: process description and lessons learned. Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance, 2013.
- Tamm EP, Bhosale PR, Wagner-Bartak NA, Le O, Szklaruk J, Kundra V. An introduction to using dual-energy CT for imaging of pancreatic and hepatic oncology. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2012.
- Bhosale P, Wagner-Bartak NA, Wei W, Kundra V, Tamm E. Comparing contrast-to-noise ratio, signal-to-noise ratio and image quality of CT images reconstructed with soft kernel, standard kernel and standard kernel with adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction 30% techniques. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting, 2012.
- Elsayes KM, Menias CO, Wagner-Bartak NA, Patnana M, Balachandran A, Devine CE, Kundra V. Imaging of the gallbladder wall: a pattern recognition approach on CT and MRI with pathologic correlation. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2011.
- Garg N, Vining DJ, Wagner-Bartak NA, Neperud JA, Truong M, Sagebiel TL, Silverman PM. Informatics: a vendor-neutral user interface for rapid access to PACS functionality using hot keys. Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, 2011.
- Wang M, Fayad L, Wagner-Bartak N, Hagemeister F, Neelapu S, Finale M, Younes A, Cabanillas F, Zhang L, Champlin R, Kwak L, Feng L, Bell N, Zeldis J, Romaguera J. Oral lenalidomide plus 4 doses of rituximab induced prolonged remissions in relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma: a completed phase I/II clinical trial. 11th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma Proceedings, 2011.
- Romaguera J, Wang M, Hagemeister F, Weaver P, Hartig K, Fanale M, Fayad L, Younes A, Rodriguez A, Fowler N, Orlowski R, Feldman T, Wagner-Bartak N, Ford P, Smith J, Ekaney M, Mato A, Valentinetti M, Kwak L, Goy A. Phase I-II study of Bortezomib in combination with R-HCVAD and R-methotrexate/ cytarabine (R-MA) in untreated mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). 16th Congress of the European Hematology Association-Haematol 96(s2):43, 2011.
- Garg N, Wagner-Bartak N, Mukai J, Elsayes K, Ernst R, Neperud J, Kundra V, Vining D. Automated midline shift detection on head CT. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting-AJR Am J Roentgenol 196:A10-A13, 2011.
- Garg N, Bandari M, Wagner-Bartak N, Neperud J, Mukai J, Kundra V, Vining D. Semiautomated measurements of renal cysts. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting-AJR Am J Roentgenol 196:A7-A10, 2011.
- Wagner-Bartak N, Marcal L, Garg N, Szklaruk J. Imaging of extrahepatic bile duct cancer: implications of the revised American Joint Committee on Cancer staging classification. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting-AJR Am J Roentgenol 196:A149-A176, 2011.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Mukhi VS, Chandrasekhar C. Lost in translation? Classic signs in abdominal radiology: From KUB to CT scout. American Roentgen Ray Society Annual Meeting 188:A115-A125, 2007.
Book Chapters
- Ganeshan D, Wagner-Bartak NA, Vicens R, Kent S, Lalwani N, Bhosale P. Gallbladder. In: Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Taylor & Francis CRC Press, 2016.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Prabhakar AM, Menias CO, Prabhakar HB, Elsayes KM. The biliary tree. In: Cross-Sectional Imaging of the Abdomen and Pelvis: A Practical Algorithmic Approach. Springer: New York, 111-143, 2015.
- Wagner-Bartak NA, Mukhi SV, Menias CO, Prabhakar AM, Elsayes KM. The gallbladder. In: Cross-Sectional Imaging of the Abdomen and Pelvis: A Practical Algorithmic Approach. Springer: New York, 145-187, 2015.
- Elsayes KM, Wagner-Bartak NA. Cesarean section scar endometrial implants. In: Special Imaging: Pitfalls and Classic Signs of the Abdomen and Pelvis. Elsevier, 2015.
- Elsayes KM, Wagner-Bartak NA. Cisterna chyli. In: Special Imaging: Pitfalls and Classic Signs of the Abdomen and Pelvis. Elsevier, 2015.
- Elsayes KM, Wagner-Bartak NA. Gastric diverticulum simulating adrenal mass. In: Specialty Imaging: Pitfalls and Classic Signs of the Abdomen and Pelvis. Elsevier, 2015.