Category: Heart and Vascular

Value Institute Spring Symposium 2015 – “Eliminating Health Care Disparities”

Giselle Corbie-Smith, M.D., MSc and Lisa Cooper, M.D., MPH discuss the critical topic of eliminating health care disparities. Dr. Lisa Cooper is the James F. Fries Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Nursing, and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also Vice President, Healthcare Equity, for Johns Hopkins Medicine. A […]

Field Trials in Developing Countries: Lessons from the PURE Study

The PURE study assesses environmental, societal, and biological influences on obesity and chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. This presentation will describe the setup and execution of this large and complex study; key findings to date; and the possibilities and pitfalls of field-based data collection in developing countries. Dr. Rahman is […]

Endothelial Function in Relatively Healthy Persons: Studies of the Old Order Amish

Endothelial cells are the first layer response to atherosclerotic risk factors. In clinically healthy individuals with no overt disease, Laser Doppler Flowmetry is used to evaluate endothelial function. This presentation will review endothelial cell response to clopidogrel and clopidogrels activation in the body. Last, we will review genetic determinants of endothelial growth factor angiopoietin-2, a […]

Preventing Perioperative Cardiovascular Complications: The Conundrum Continues

Perioperative cardiovascular complications or major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs), including all-cause death, myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac arrest, stroke and repeat revascularization either by PCI or CABG, remain the leading cause of postoperative complications and death among the aged patients (≥ 45 years old) undergoing major noncardiac surgery. Meanwhile, based on the ACC/AHA guidelines on perioperative […]

Implementing a Mid-Trial Adaptation in a Stroke Clinical Trial: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The use of adaptive designs has been increasing in randomized clinical trials. Sample size re-estimation is a type of adaptation in which nuisance parameters are estimated at an interim point in the trial and the sample size re-computed based on these estimates. However, post-hoc evaluations of the adaptation, including sample size re-estimation, have not frequently […]

Dietary Sodium and Health: More Than Just Blood Pressure

Sodium is essential for cellular homeostasis and physiological function. Excess dietary sodium has been linked to elevations in blood pressure (BP). The mechanisms underlying sodium-induced increases in BP are not completely understood but may involve alterations in renal function, fluid volume, fluid-regulatory hormones, the vasculature, cardiac function, and the autonomic nervous system. Recent pre-clinical and […]

Familial Hypercholesterolemia New Insights New Opportunities

Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH) is the most common inherited disorder to cause premature morbidity and mortality. It is under-recognized and under-treated. FH provides a genetic model for the cholesterol hypothesis linking cholesterol intake to cardiovascular disease. The discovery of the FH mechanism dramatically improved understanding of lipid metabolism in the body. This talk will examine new […]

A Quantitative Model for Glagov Remodeling in Atherosclerosis

Glagov phenomenon describes how atherosclerotic vessels change shape under an increasing disease burden (see Glagov et al, New England Journal of Medicine 1987). Specifically, lumen areas remain constant or increase slightly before contracting as intima areas increase. This presentation will introduce a mathematical model for Glagov remodeling and allow clinicians and researchers to understand the […]

Composite Outcomes vs. Multistate Competing Risks

The primary outcome of most cardiovascular studies is a composite of several major events such as cardiovascular death, death from any cause, non-fatal MI or stroke. A patient is considered to experience a “cardiovascular event” if at least one of these outcomes occurs. Often, analyses are subsequently made of each event separately. This talk presents […]

Can Big Data be Used for Comparative Effectiveness Research?

Data sets in medicine and health care are becoming larger and considerably more complex, meeting the definition of Big Data. The idea has been advanced that such data can be used to compare forms of therapy and inform medical decision making. While this is at times possible, there are considerable challenges in doing so. This […]