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):
Lubitz SA, Lunetta KL, Lin H, Arking DE, Trompet S, Li G, Krijthe BP, Chasman DI, Barnard J, Kleber ME, Dorr M, Ozaki K, Smith AV, Muller-Nurasyid M, Walter S, Agarwal SK, Bis JC, Brody JA, Chen LY, Everett BM, Ford I, Franco OH, Harris TB, Hofman A, Kääb S, Mahida S, Kathiresan S, Kubo M, Launer LJ, Macfarlane PW, Magnani JW, McKnight B, McManus DD, Peters A, Psaty BM, Rose LM, Rotter JI, Silbernagel G, Smith JD, Sotoodehnia N, Stott DJ, Taylor KD, Tomaschitz A, Tsunoda T, Uitterlinden AG, Van Wagoner DR, Völker U, Völzke H, Murabito JM, Sinner MF, Gudnason V, Felix SB, März W, Chung M, Albert CM, Stricker BH, Tanaka T, Heckbert SR, Jukema JW, Alonso A, Benjamin EJ, Ellinor PT. Novel genetic markers associate with atrial fibrillation risk in Europeans and Japanese. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014 Apr 1;63(12):1200-10. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.12.015. Epub 2014 Jan 30. PubMed
Ibrahim-Verbaas CA, Fornage M, Bis JC, Choi SH, Psaty BM, Meigs JB, Rao M, Nalls M, Fontes JD, O'Donnell CJ, Kathiresan S, Ehret GB, Fox CS, Malik R, Dichgans M, Schmidt H, Lahti J, Heckbert SR, Lumley T, Rice K, Rotter JI, Taylor KD, Folsom AR, Boerwinkle E, Rosamond WD, Shahar E, Gottesman RF, Koudstaal PJ, Amin N, Wieberdink RG, Dehghan A, Hofman A, Uitterlinden AG, Destefano AL, Debette S, Xue L, Beiser A, Wolf PA, Decarli C, Ikram MA, Seshadri S, Mosley TH Jr, Longstreth WT Jr, van Duijn CM, Launer LJ. Predicting stroke through genetic risk functions: the CHARGE Risk Score Project. Stroke. 2014 Feb;45(2):403-12. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.003044. Epub 2014 Jan 16. PubMed
Lemaitre RN, Johnson CO, Hesselson S, Sotoodhenia N, McKnight B, Sitlani CM, Rea TD, King IB, Kwok PY, Mak A, Li G, Brody J, Larson E, Mozaffarian D, Psaty BM, Huertas-Vazquez A, Tardif JC, Albert CM, Lyytikainen LP, Arking DE, Kaab S, Huikuri HV, Krijthe BP, Eigelsheim M, Wang YA, Reinier K, Lehtimaki T, Pulit SL, Brugada R, Muller-Nurasyid M, Newton-Chen CH, Karhunen PJ, Stricker BH, Goyette P, Rotter JI, Chugh SS, Chakravarti A, Jouven X, Siscovick DS. Common variation in fatty acid metabolic genes and risk of incident sudden cardiac arrest. Heart Rhythm. 2014 Mar;11(3):471-7. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2014.01.008. Epub 2014 Jan 10. Erratum in: Heart Rhythm. 2014 Aug;11(8):1496. Sotoodhenia, Nona [corrected to Sotoodehnia, Nona]. PubMed
Morrison AC, Bis JC, Hwang SJ, Ehret GB, Lumley T, Rice K, Muzny D, Gibbs RA, Boerwinkle E, Psaty BM, Chakravarti A, Levy D. Sequence analysis of six blood pressure candidate regions in 4,178 individuals: the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Targeted Sequencing Study. PLoS One. 2014 Oct 2;9(10):e109155. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109155. eCollection 2014. PubMed
Dichgans M, Malik R, König IR, Rosand J, Clarke R, Gretarsdottir S, Thorleifsson G, Mitchell BD, Assimes TL, Levi C, Odonnell CJ, Fornage M, Thorsteinsdottir U, Psaty BM, Hengstenberg C, Seshadri S, Erdmann J, Bis JC, Peters A, Boncoraglio GB, März W, Meschia JF, Kathiresan S, Ikram MA, McPherson R, Stefansson K, Sudlow C, Reilly MP, Thompson JR, Sharma P, Hopewell JC, Chambers JC, Watkins H, Rothwell PM, Roberts R, Markus HS, Samani NJ, Farrall M, Schunkert H; the METASTROKE Consortium; the CARDIoGRAM consortium; the C4D consortium; the International Stroke Genetics Consortium; Collaborators/second tier of authors. Shared genetic susceptibility to ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease: a genome-wide analysis of common variants. Stroke. 2014 Jan;45(1):24-36. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.002707. Epub 2013 Nov 21. Review. 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