Women's Cardiovascular Health: Diagnosis, Treatment and Disease Prevention
This Strategic Research Area is co-chaired by Marcia Stefanick, PhD, and Hannah Valantine, MD and Jennifer Tremmel, MD.
Members include:
| Alles, Wesley F PhD | Rasgon, Natalie MD, PhD |
| Batterson, Jim | Rockson, Stan MD |
| Berra, Kathy MSN, ANP, FAAN | Schnittger, Ingela MD |
| Friday, Karen MD | Stafford, Randall MD, PhD |
| Gallagher- Thompson, Dolores PhD, ABPP | Stefanick, Marcia PhD |
| Hunt, Sharon MD | Tremmel, Jennifer MD |
| Hsu, Sheau-Yu Teddy PhD | Valantine, Hannah MD |
| King, Abby C PhD | Westphal, Lynn MD |
| Kothary, Nishita MD | |
| McConnell, Mike MD, MSEE |
With 2007 Institute seed funding, the Women's Cardiovascular Health group is continuing research in Sex differences in those presenting with chest pain but having “normal” coronary arteries: an evaluation of coronary plaque distribution, endothelial function, and the microcirculation. Our current understanding of coronary artery disease (CAD) is based on fifty years of scientific data and clinical experience derived predominately from men. Prevention and treatment paradigms built around this knowledge have led to a steady decline in cardiovascular deaths among men, but not in women, challenging the assumption that these paradigms are applicable to both sexes. Indeed, more recent investigations have found differences between women and men throughout the entire spectrum of heart disease, from risk factors to diagnosis and from treatment to outcomes. At the heart of this difference may be a distinct sex variation in the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease. Co-investigators are Alan Yeung, MD, Marcia Stefanick, PhD and Jennifer Tremmel, MD, SM. The study objectives are:
- To compare intracoronary anatomic and atherosclerotic variations between women and men using intravascular ultrasound.
- To compare the incidence and severity of coronary endothelial dysfunction between women and men using intracoronary acetylcholine and quantitative coronary angiography (QCA).
- To compare the incidence and severity of coronary microcirculatory dysfunction between women and men using the coronary pressure wire to measure the index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR).
