Lin Yee Chen, MD, MS, a professor on the College of Minnesota Medical Faculty and director of the Lillehei Coronary heart Institute, has been awarded a $4.39 million grant from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being to review atrial myopathy-;a coronary heart situation related to a better threat of dementia and vascular mind harm.
“This venture has the potential to establish a novel threat issue for dementia and stroke. Importantly, we will probably modify this threat issue to scale back the chance of dementia and stroke,” mentioned Dr. Chen, who can be a cardiac electrophysiologist with M Well being Fairview.
Atrial myopathy is a situation that impacts the muscle groups within the higher chambers of the center. It might probably result in coronary heart rhythm points and may make it tougher for the center to pump blood successfully. Atrial myopathy has been linked to an elevated threat of dementia, stroke and neuroimaging markers of vascular mind harm. Nevertheless, prior analysis has been restricted by the shortage of information in folks 85 years and older and the shortage of information on how atrial myopathy adjustments over time. These limitations have constrained progress on discovering novel therapies to stop atrial myopathy and its neurocognitive impression, notably in older folks.
Dr. Chen’s venture goals to characterize atrial myopathy development and trajectories of the situation in older adults and make clear its relationship to the incidence of dementia and gentle cognitive impairment. The analysis group may even analyze the impression of atrial myopathy development on neuroimaging and plasma biomarkers of dementia, in addition to establish particular way of life or molecular threat components for atrial myopathy development.
The venture will leverage the intensive knowledge within the well-characterized Atherosclerosis Threat in Communities cohort and measure left atrial perform over time. This can permit the group to characterize the trajectories of atrial myopathy development. They may even conduct ambulatory coronary heart rhythm monitoring to detect atrial fibrillation to be able to account for the contribution of atrial fibrillation to illness associations.
This $4.39 million grant is awarded for fiscal 12 months 2023.