Cardiovascular health

Heart disease, the leading cause of death in older adults, has long been a high priority for investigators at Group Health Research Institute (GHRI). Researchers interested in heart disease here keep finding new links between cardiovascular problems and genetic inheritance, health behaviors, and various medications such as antihypertensive drugs and postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT). These discoveries spring from well-designed studies that use Group Health's extensive administrative and pharmacy databases, along with telephone interviews with patients.

GHRI scientists often collaborate with colleagues at the University of Washington (UW), the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and other institutions to study heart disease. These investigators' findings have challenged conventional wisdom and changed standard practice in several areas. Examples include new ways to treat people with high blood pressure—and identifying risk factors for heart attacks, stroke, irregular heartbeats, and blood clots in deep veins.

"The goal of studying interactions between drugs and genes is to identify patients who may be especially susceptible to either the benefits or the risks of a drug therapy," says Bruce M. Psaty, MD, PhD, a senior investigator at GHRI who co-directs the UW's Cardiovascular Health Research Unit. "If these genetic variants can be identified and confirmed in additional studies, the application of this knowledge will help assure that each individual patient receives the safest and most effective therapies for him or her."

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GHRI researchers in cardiovascular health

Affiliate researchers

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Recent publications on cardiovascular health

2010

Campbell CY, Fang BF, Guo X, Peralta CA, Psaty BM, Rich SS, Young JH, Coresh J, Kramer HJ, Rotter JI, Post WS. Associations between genetic variants in the ace, agt, agtr1 and agtr2 genes and renal function in the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Am J Nephrol. 2010 Jul 1;32(2):156-62. PubMed

Dublin S, Glazer NL, Smith NL, Psaty BM, Lumley T, Wiggins KL, Page RL, Heckbert SR. Diabetes mellitus, glycemic control, and risk of atrial fibrillation. J Gen Intern Med. 2010 Aug;25(8):853-8. Epub 2010 Apr 20. PubMed

Eijgelsheim M, Newton-Cheh C, Sotoodehnia N, de Bakker PI, Muller M, Morrison AC, Smith AV, Isaacs A, Sanna S, Dorr M, Navarro P, Fuchsberger C, Nolte IM, de Geus EJ, Estrada K, Hwang SJ, Bis JC, Ruckert IM, Alonso A, Launer LJ, Hottenga JJ, Rivadeneira F, Noseworthy PA, Rice KM, Perz S, Arking DE, Spector TD, Kors JA, Aulchenko YS, Tarasov KV, Homuth G, Wild SH, Marroni F, Gieger C, Licht CM, Prineas RJ, Hofman A, Rotter JI, Hicks AA, Ernst F, Najjar SS, Wright AF, Peters A, Fox ER, Oostra BA, Kroemer HK, Couper D, Völzke H, Campbell H, Meitinger T, Uda M, Witteman JC, Psaty BM, Wichmann HE, Harris TB, Kääb S, Siscovick DS, Jamshidi Y, Uitterlinden AG, Folsom AR, Larson MG, Wilson JF, Penninx BW, Snieder H, Pramstaller PP, van Duijn CM, Lakatta EG, Felix SB, Gudnason V, Pfeufer A, Heckbert SR, Stricker BH, Boerwinkle E, O'Donnell CJ. Genome-wide association analysis identifies multiple loci related with resting heart rate. Hum Mol Genet. 2010 Jul 16. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed

Eisenberg MS, Psaty BM. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation: celebration and challenges. JAMA. 2010;304(1):87-8. PubMed

Kalogeropoulos A, Georgiopoulou V, Psaty BM, Rodondi N, Smith AL, Harrison DG, Liu Y, Hoffmann U, Bauer DC, Newman AB, Kritchevsky SB, Harris TB, Butler J. Inflammatory markers and incident heart failure risk in older adults: the Health ABC (Health, Aging, and Body Composition) study. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010;55(19):2129-37. PubMed

Smith NL, Felix JF, Morrison AC, Demissie S, Glazer NL, Loehr LR, Cupples LA, Dehghan A, Lumley T, Rosamond WD, Lieb W, Rivadeneira F, Bis JC, Folsom AR, Benjamin EJ, Aulchenko YS, Haritunians T, Couper D, Murabito J, Wang YA, Stricker BH, Gottdiener JS, Chang PP, Wang TJ, Rice KM, Hofman A, Heckbert SR, Fox ER, O'Donnell CJ, Uitterlinden AG, Rotter JI, Willerson JT, Levy D, Vanduijn CM, Psaty BM, Witteman JC, Boerwinkle E, Vasan RS. The association of genome-wide variation with the risk of incident heart failure in adults of European and African ancestry: a prospective meta-analysis from the CHARGE Consortium. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2010 Jun 1;3(3):256-66. Epub 2010 May 5. PubMed

2009

Heckbert SR, Wiggins KL, Glazer NL, Dublin S, Psaty BM, Smith NL, Longstreth Jr WT, Lumley T. Antihypertensive treatment with ACE inhibitors or beta-blockers and risk of incident atrial fibrillation in a general hypertensive population. Am J Hypertens. 2009;22(5):538-44. Epub 2009 Mar 5. PubMed

Malone DC, Boudreau DM, Nichols GA, Raebel MA, Fishman PA, Feldstein AC, Ben-Joseph RH, Okamoto LJ, Boscoe AN, Magid DJ. Association of cardiometabolic risk factors and prevalent cardiovascular events. Metab Syndr Relat Disord. 2009;7(6):585-93. Epub 2009 Nov 9. PubMed

2008

Heckbert SR, Li G, Cummings SR, Smith NL, Psaty BM. Use of alendronate and risk of incident atrial fibrillation in women. Arch Intern Med. 2008;168(8):826-31. PubMed

Thomas MC, Dublin S, Kaplan RC, Glazer NL, Lumley T, Longstreth WT Jr, Smith NL, Psaty BM, Siscovick DS, Heckbert SR. Blood pressure control and risk of incident atrial fibrillation. Am J Hypertens. 2008;21(10):1111-6. Epub 2008 Aug 28. PubMed

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Our major research interests

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