Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) scientists are working to understand how to reduce our risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases throughout life.
Addressing risk factors, improving diagnosis, and exploring how medications, genes, and everyday life affect our cardiovascular health at different ages and stages are central to this work — as is translating research findings into practical, personalized care.
“We’ve found that helping patients and health care teams work together on personalized care plans is the best path to lifelong heart health,” says Beverly Green, MD, MPH, whose recent work has focused on improving the diagnosis of high blood pressure.
Additional focus areas for KPWHRI scientists include exploring the impact of cardiovascular diseases on other health conditions — and vice versa. Recently, this has led researchers Sascha Dublin, MD, PhD, and Laura B. Harrington, PhD, MPH, to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health.
Below are other research highlights from KPWHRI’s cardiovascular health scientists (please visit their bios to learn more):
Lemaitre RN, King IB, Kabagambe EK, Wu JH, McKnight B, Manichaikul A, Guan W, Sun Q, Chasman DI, Foy M, Wang L, Zhu J, Siscovick DS, Tsai MY, Arnett DK, Psaty BM, Djousse L, Chen YD, Tang W, Weng LC, Wu H, Jensen MK, Chu AY, Jacobs DR Jr, Rich SS, Mozaffarian D, Steffen L, Rimm EB, Hu FB, Ridker PM, Fornage M, Friedlander Y. Genetic loci associated with circulating levels of very long-chain saturated fatty acids. J Lipid Res. 2015 Jan;56(1):176-84. doi: 10.1194/jlr.M052456. Epub 2014 Nov 6. PubMed
van Leeuwen EM, Karssen LC, Deelen J, Isaacs A, Medina-Gomez C, Mbarek H, Kanterakis A, Trompet S, Postmus I, Verweij N, van Enckevort DJ, Huffman JE, White CC, Feitosa MF, Bartz TM, Manichaikul A, Joshi PK, Peloso GM, Deelen P, van Dijk F, Willemsen G, de Geus EJ, Milaneschi Y, Penninx BW, Francioli LC, Menelaou A, Pulit SL, Rivadeneira F, Hofman A, Oostra BA, Franco OH, Mateo Leach I, Beekman M, de Craen AJ, Uh HW, Trochet H, Hocking LJ, Porteous DJ, Sattar N, Packard CJ, Buckley BM, Brody JA, Bis JC, Rotter JI, Mychaleckyj JC, Campbell H, Duan Q, Lange LA, Wilson JF, Hayward C, Polasek O, Vitart V, Rudan I, Wright AF, Rich SS, Psaty BM, Borecki IB, Kearney PM, Stott DJ, Adrienne Cupples L; Genome of the Netherlands Consortium, Jukema JW, van der Harst P, Sijbrands EJ, Hottenga JJ, Uitterlinden AG, Swertz MA, van Ommen GJ, de Bakker PI, Eline Slagboom P, Boomsma DI, Wijmenga C, van Duijn CM. Genome of the Netherlands population-specific imputations identify an ABCA6 variant associated with cholesterol levels. Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 9;6:6065. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7065. PubMed
Yi CJ, Wu CO, Tee M, Liu CY, Volpe GJ, Prince MR, Hundley GW, Gomes AS, van der Geest RJ, Heckbert S, Lima JA, Bluemke DA. The association between cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular magnetic resonance measures of fibrosis: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2015 Feb 12;17(1):15. doi: 10.1186/s12968-015-0121-5. PubMed
Rillamas-Sun E, Buchner DM, Di C, Evenson KR, LaCroix AZ. Development and application of an automated algorithm to identify a window of consecutive days of accelerometer wear for large-scale studies. BMC Res Notes. 2015 Jun 26;8:270. doi: 10.1186/s13104-015-1229-2. PubMed
Hansen JG, Gao W, Dupuis J, O'Connor GT, Tang W, Kowgier M, Sood A, Gharib SA, Palmer LJ, Fornage M, Heckbert SR, Psaty BM, Booth SL, Cassano PA. Association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D status and genetic variation in the vitamin D metabolic pathway with FEV1 in the Framingham Heart Study. Respir Res. 2015 Jul 1;16(1):81. doi: 10.1186/s12931-015-0238-y. PubMed
Sascha Dublin, MD, PhDSenior Investigator |
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPHSenior Investigator |
Laura Harrington, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
Ellen O'Meara, PhDPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Nicole M. Gatto, PhD, MPHPrincipal Collaborative Scientist |
Meagan C. Brown, PhD, MPHAssistant Investigator |
James Floyd, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
Susan Heckbert, MD, PhD
University of Washington (UW) Department of Epidemiology; UW Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Nicholas L. Smith, PhD, MPH
UW Professor, Epidemiology, Cardiovascular Health Research Unit
Director, Seattle Epidemiology and Information Resource Center, VA Puget Sound Health Care System