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):
Williams MS, Cushman M, Ouyang P, Heckbert SR, Kalyani RR, Vaidya D. Association of serum sex hormones with hemostatic factors in women on and off hormone therapy: the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2015 Dec 24. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Winkler TW, Justice AE, Graff M, Barata L, Feitosa MF, Chu S, Czajkowski J, Esko T, Fall T, Kilpeläinen TO, Lu Y, Mägi R, Mihailov E, Pers TH, Rüeger S, Teumer A, Ehret GB, Ferreira T, Heard-Costa NL, Karjalainen J, Lagou V, Mahajan A, Neinast MD, Prokopenko I, Simino J, Teslovich TM, Jansen R, Westra HJ, White CC, Absher D, Ahluwalia TS, Ahmad S, Albrecht E, Alves AC, Bragg-Gresham JL, de Craen AJ, Bis JC, Bonnefond A, Boucher G, Cadby G, Cheng YC, Chiang CW, Delgado G, Demirkan A, Dueker N, Eklund N, Eiriksdottir G, Eriksson J, Feenstra B, Fischer K, Frau F, Galesloot TE, Geller F, Goel A, Gorski M, Grammer TB, Gustafsson S, Haitjema S, Hottenga JJ, Huffman JE, Jackson AU, Jacobs KB, Johansson Å, Kaakinen M, Kleber ME, Lahti J, Mateo Leach I, Lehne B, Liu Y, Lo KS, Lorentzon M, Luan J, Madden PA, Mangino M, McKnight B, Medina-Gomez C, Monda KL, Montasser ME, Müller G, Müller-Nurasyid M, Nolte IM, Panoutsopoulou K, Pascoe L, Paternoster L, Rayner NW, Renström F, Rizzi F, Rose LM, Ryan KA, Salo P, Sanna S, Scharnagl H, Shi J, Smith AV, Southam L, Stancáková A, Steinthorsdottir V, Strawbridge RJ, Sung YJ, Tachmazidou I, Tanaka T, Thorleifsson G, Trompet S, Pervjakova N, Tyrer JP, Vandenput L, van der Laan SW, van der Velde N, van Setten J, van Vliet-Ostaptchouk JV, Verweij N, Vlachopoulou E, Waite LL, Wang SR, Wang Z, Wild SH, Willenborg C, Wilson JF, Wong A, Yang J, Yengo L, Yerges-Armstrong LM, Yu L, Zhang W, Zhao JH, Andersson EA, Bakker SJ, Baldassarre D, Banasik K, Barcella M, Barlassina C, Bellis C, Benaglio P, Blangero J, Blüher M, Bonnet F, Bonnycastle LL, Boyd HA, Bruinenberg M, Buchman AS, Campbell H, Chen YD, Chines PS, Claudi-Boehm S, Cole J, Collins FS, de Geus EJ, de Groot LC, Dimitriou M, Duan J, Enroth S, Eury E, Farmaki AE, Forouhi NG, Friedrich N, Gejman PV, Gigante B, Glorioso N, Go AS, Gottesman O, Gräßler J, Grallert H, Grarup N, Gu YM, Broer L, Ham AC, Hansen T, Harris TB, Hartman CA, Hassinen M, Hastie N, Hattersley AT, Heath AC, Henders AK, Hernandez D, Hillege H, Holmen O, Hovingh KG, Hui J, Husemoen LL, Hutri-Kähönen N, Hysi PG, Illig T, De Jager PL, Jalilzadeh S, Jørgensen T, Jukema JW, Juonala M, Kanoni S, Karaleftheri M, Khaw KT, Kinnunen L, Kittner SJ, Koenig W, Kolcic I, Kovacs P, Krarup NT, Kratzer W, Krüger J, Kuh D, Kumari M, Kyriakou T, Langenberg C, Lannfelt L, Lanzani C, Lotay V, Launer LJ, Leander K, Lindström J, Linneberg A, Liu YP, Lobbens S, Luben R, Lyssenko V, Männistö S, Magnusson PK, McArdle WL, Menni C, Merger S, Milani L, Montgomery GW, Morris AP, Narisu N, Nelis M, Ong KK, Palotie A, Pérusse L, Pichler I, Pilia MG, Pouta A, Rheinberger M, Ribel-Madsen R, Richards M, Rice KM, Rice TK, Rivolta C, Salomaa V, Sanders AR, Sarzynski MA, Scholtens S, Scott RA, Scott WR, Sebert S, Sengupta S, Sennblad B, Seufferlein T, Silveira A, Slagboom PE, Smit JH, Sparsø TH, Stirrups K, Stolk RP, Stringham HM, Swertz MA, Swift AJ, Syvänen AC, Tan ST, Thorand B, Tönjes A, Tremblay A, Tsafantakis E, van der Most PJ, Völker U, Vohl MC, Vonk JM, Waldenberger M, Walker RW, Wennauer R, Widén E, Willemsen G, Wilsgaard T, Wright AF, Zillikens MC, van Dijk SC, van Schoor NM, Asselbergs FW, de Bakker PI, Beckmann JS, Beilby J, Bennett DA, Bergman RN, Bergmann S, Böger CA, Boehm BO, Boerwinkle E, Boomsma DI, Bornstein SR, Bottinger EP, Bouchard C, Chambers JC, Chanock SJ, Chasman DI, Cucca F, Cusi D, Dedoussis G, Erdmann J, Eriksson JG, Evans DA, de Faire U, Farrall M, Ferrucci L, Ford I, Franke L, Franks PW, Froguel P, Gansevoort RT, Gieger C, Grönberg H, Gudnason V, Gyllensten U, Hall P, Hamsten A, van der Harst P, Hayward C, Heliövaara M, Hengstenberg C, Hicks AA, Hingorani A, Hofman A, Hu F, Huikuri HV, Hveem K, James AL, Jordan JM, Jula A, Kähönen M, Kajantie E, Kathiresan S, Kiemeney LA, Kivimaki M, Knekt PB, Koistinen HA, Kooner JS, Koskinen S, Kuusisto J, Maerz W, Martin NG, Laakso M, Lakka TA, Lehtimäki T, Lettre G, Levinson DF, Lind L, Lokki ML, Mäntyselkä P, Melbye M, Metspalu A, Mitchell BD, Moll FL, Murray JC, Musk AW, Nieminen MS, Njølstad I, Ohlsson C, Oldehinkel AJ, Oostra BA, Palmer LJ, Pankow JS, Pasterkamp G, Pedersen NL, Pedersen O, Penninx BW, Perola M, Peters A, Polašek O, Pramstaller PP, Psaty BM, Qi L, Quertermous T, Raitakari OT, Rankinen T, Rauramaa R, Ridker PM, Rioux JD, Rivadeneira F, Rotter JI, Rudan I, den Ruijter HM, Saltevo J, Sattar N, Schunkert H, Schwarz PE, Shuldiner AR, Sinisalo J, Snieder H, Sørensen TI, Spector TD, Staessen JA, Stefania B, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stumvoll M, Tardif JC, Tremoli E, Tuomilehto J, Uitterlinden AG, Uusitupa M, Verbeek AL, Vermeulen SH, Viikari JS, Vitart V, Völzke H, Vollenweider P, Waeber G, Walker M, Wallaschofski H, Wareham NJ, Watkins H, Zeggini E; CHARGE Consortium; DIAGRAM Consortium; GLGC Consortium; Global-BPGen Consortium; ICBP Consortium; MAGIC Consortium, Chakravarti A, Clegg DJ, Cupples LA, Gordon-Larsen P, Jaquish CE, Rao DC, Abecasis GR, Assimes TL, Barroso I, Berndt SI, Boehnke M, Deloukas P, Fox CS, Groop LC, Hunter DJ, Ingelsson E, Kaplan RC, McCarthy MI, Mohlke KL, O'Connell JR, Schlessinger D, Strachan DP, Stefansson K, van Duijn CM, Hirschhorn JN, Lindgren CM, Heid IM, North KE, Borecki IB, Kutalik Z, Loos RJ. The influence of age and sex on genetic associations with adult body size and shape: a large-scale genome-wide interaction study. PLoS Genet. 2015 Oct 1;11(10):e1005378. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1005378. eCollection 2015 Oct. PubMed
Wojczynski MK, Li M, Bielak LF, Kerr KF, Reiner AP, Wong ND, Yanek LR, Qu L, White CC, Lange LA, Ferguson JF, He J, Young T, Mosley TH, Smith JA, Kral BG, Guo X, Wong Q, Ganesh SK, Heckbert SR, Griswold ME, O Leary DH, Budoff M, Carr JJ, Taylor HA Jr, Bluemke DA, Demissie S, Hwang SJ, Paltoo DN, Polak JF, Psaty BM, Becker DM, Province MA, Post WS, O Donnell CJ, Wilson JG, Harris TB, Kavousi M, Cupples LA, Rotter JI, Fornage M, Becker LC, Peyser PA, Borecki IB, Reilly MP. Genetics of coronary artery calcification among African Americans, a meta-analysis. BMC Med Genet. 2013 Jul 19;14:75. doi: 10.1186/1471-2350-14-75. PubMed
Wolters FJ, Chibnik LB, Waziry R, Anderson R, Berr C, Beiser A, Bis JC, Blacker D, Bos D, Brayne C, Dartigues JF, Darweesh SK, Davis-Plourde KL, de Wolf F, Debette S, Dufouil C, Fornage M, Goudsmit J, Grasset L, Gudnason V, Hadjichrysanthou C, Helmer C, Ikram MA, Ikram MK, Joas E, Kern S, Kuller LH, Launer L, Lopez O, Matthews FE, McRae-McKee K, Meirelles O, Mosley TH Jr, Pase MP, Psaty BM, Satizabal CL, Seshadri S, Skoog I, Stephan BC, Wetterberg H, Wong MM, Zettergren A, Hofman A. 27-year time trends in dementia incidence in Europe and the US: the Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium. Neurology. 2020 Jul 1:10.1212/WNL.0000000000010022. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000010022. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Wolters FJ, Yang Q, Biggs ML, Jakobsdottir J, Li S, Evans DS, Bis JC, Harris TB, Vasan RS, Zilhao NR, Ghanbari M, Ikram MA, Launer L, Psaty BM, Tranah GJ, Kulminski AM, Gudnason V, Seshadri S; E2-CHARGE investigators. The impact of ApoE genotype on survival: results of 38,537 participants from six population-based cohorts (E2-CHARGE). PLoS One. 2019 Jul 29;14(7):e0219668. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219668. eCollection 2019. 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