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Vikas Agarwal, MD

  • Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education, Department of Radiology
  • Associate Chief, Division of Neuroradiolgy
  • Director, Spine Intervention
  • Program Director, UPMC Neuroradiology Fellowship Program

Dr. Agarwal is Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Education at UPMC where he also serves as Associate Chief of Neuroradiology, Director of Spine Intervention, and Neuroradiology Fellowship Program Director. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Boston University. He completed his residency training in Diagnostic Radiology at UPMC, serving as Chief Resident, followed by a fellowship in Neuroradiology also at UPMC. A dedicated educator teaching medical students, residents and fellows, he has won numerous teaching awards to date. Dr. Agarwal is well published and regarded as a leader in spinal imaging/intervention, traumatic brain/spine injury, and medical education. He is involved in numerous local, regional and national societies having held several positions of leadership.

Representative Publications

  1. Salibi PN, *Agarwal V, Panczykowski DM, Puccio AM, Sheetz MA, Okonkwo DO. Lifetime Attributable Risk of Cancer from Computed Tomography in Patients with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury. Am J Roentgen. 2014;202:397-400.
  2. Rodriguez D, Branstetter BF, Agarwal V, Palfey S, Ching KC, Bump GM, Hughes MA. Incidence of Complications Following Fluoroscopically-guided Lumbar Punctures and Myelograms. Am J Roentgen. 2016;206(1):20-5.
  3. Lagemann GM, Yannes M, Ghodadra A, Rothfus WE, Agarwal V. CT-Fluoroscopic Cervical Transforaminal Epidural Steroid Injections: Extraforaminal Needle Tip Position Decreases Risk of Intravascular Injection. Am J Neurorad. 2016;37(4):766-72.
  4. Agarwal V, Bump GM, Heller MT, Chen LW, Branstetter BF, Amesur NB, Hughes MA. Do Residency Selection Factors Predict Radiology Resident Performance? Acad Radiol 2018;25(3):397-402.
  5. Agarwal V, Bump GM, Heller MT, Chen LW, Branstetter BF, Amesur NB, Hughes MA. Resident Case Volume Correlates with Clinical Performance: Finding the Sweet Spot. Acad Radiol 2019;26(1):136-140.

Research Interests

  1. Spinal imaging/intervention
  2. Traumatic brain/spine injury
  3. Medical education
  4. CSF Flow dynamics

Research Grants

Funding track-records:
NIH, US Department of Defense, NFL Scientific Advisory Board, GE, UPMC Beckwith Institute