Grant Funds Heart Failure Research UAB, AU to Collaborate in $18 M Grant
Tom Denney of the electrical and computer engineering faculty will collaborate with researchers in Auburn's College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to form a Specialized Center of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR). The center, based at UAB, is funded for five years by an $18 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (HNLBI).
The UAB center was selected as one five nationwide to head a national research assault on congestive heart failure, a chronic condition that leads to an enlarged heart and eventual heart failure that is one of the nation's leading killers of humans and dogs.
The program will focus on three types of heart failure - medication-resistant hypertension, diabetic heart disease and heart valve disease. The three are especially difficult to treat using standard therapies and account for more than half of the nation's 4.7 million human heart failure patients. Mitral valve disease is the most common heart disease in dogs.
Researchers at UAB and Auburn University's Veterinary School will conduct the clinical portion of the study. The hearts of patients - human and canine - will be imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the progress of the patients monitored.
The heart images will be sent to Denney, principal researcher for the center at Auburn's College of Engineering, for analysis. Denney has developed techniques for quantitatively measuring how much the heart muscle contracts and other indicators of cardiac health from cardiac MRI data. This analysis, combined with serial MRI scans, is expected to revolutionize the understanding of the heart's response to disease.
"The software enables us to measure subtle changes in the heart's shape and contraction that cannot be detected with other techniques," says Denney.
Denney's data will be combined with clinical information to help researchers better understand the mechanism that causes the heart to enlarge in each type of heart failure. Once the causes are explained, researchers hope to identify drug therapies to try to block or delay damage to the heart.
"The ultimate goal of the research is to improve the quality of life and longevity of heart patients," says Denney.
Denney will be work closely with principal investigator Louis J. Dell'Italia, UAB's primary SCCOR program director, professor of medicine in cardiovascular diseases in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, and Elmer and Glenda Harris endowed chair holder; and Ray Dillon, Jack Rash professor of medicine and the principal investigator on the project in the AU College of Veterinary Medicine.
According to Dell'Italia this multi-institution approach ensures that each job is done by the best person available. "Engineers are uniquely qualified to study the geometry of the heart and pathologists to study tissues," he says. "Cardiologists understand how to relate these findings to patient symptoms and treatment."
The Cleveland Clinic, Washington University, University of Cincinnati and Columbia University are the other four designated heart failure SCCOR centers.
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