Framingham Heart Study
Over a decade of collaboration with the Framingham Heart Study has yielded fundamental information about the relationship between coronary artery calcium, ectopic fat, and cardiovascular disease. More recent work applied the 2013 ACC/AHA statin guidelines and 2015 CMS lung cancer screening eligibility guidelines to characterize the risk of cardiovascular events and subclinical atherosclerosis in these clinically relevant populations.

  1. Taron J, Lyass A, Mahoney TF, Ehrbar RQ, Vasan RS, D’Agostino RB, Hoffmann U, Massaro JM, Lu MT. Coronary artery calcium score-directed primary prevention with statins based on the 2018 ACC/AHA/multisociety cholesterol guidelines. J Am Heart Assoc, 2021;10:e018342.
  2. Foldyna B, Eslami P, Scholtz J-E, Baltrusaitis K, Lu MT, Massaro JM, D’Agostino RB, Ferencik M, Aerts HJWL, O’Donnell CJ, Hoffmann U. Density and morphology of coronary artery calcium for the prediction of cardiovascular events: insights from the Framingham Heart Study. Eur Radiol 2019;
  3. Ferencik M, Pencina KM, Liu T, Ghemigian K, Baltrusaitis K, Massaro JM, D’Agostino RB, O’Donnell CJ, Hoffmann U. Coronary Artery Calcium Distribution Is an Independent Predictor of Incident Major Coronary Heart Disease EventsCLINICAL PERSPECTIVE: Results From the Framingham Heart Study. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging 2017;10:e006592.
  4. Pursnani A, Massaro JM, D’Agostino RB, O’Donnell CJ, Hoffmann U. Guideline-Based Statin Eligibility, Cancer Events, and Noncardiovascular Mortality in the Framingham Heart Study. J Clin Oncol 2017;35:2927–2933.
  5. Lu MT, Onuma OK, Massaro JM, D’Agostino RB, O’Donnell CJ, Hoffmann U. Lung Cancer Screening Eligibility in the Community: Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Coronary Artery Calcification, and Cardiovascular Events. Circulation 2016;134:897–899.

Cardiometabolic Disease, Cardiac Structure, and Cardiovascular Risk
Metabolic syndrome is a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although obesity has frequently been cited as central to CVD risk, emerging literature suggests that cardiometabolic risk may evolve independently from body mass index (BMI). The goal of this research is to understand the determinants of cardiometabolic disease and their impact on cardiac structure, function, and prognosis.

  1. Kammerlander AA, Lyass A, Mahoney TF, Massaro JM, Long MT, Vasan RS, Hoffmann U. Sex Differences in the Associations of Visceral Adipose Tissue and Cardiometabolic and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The Framingham Heart Study. J Am Heart Assoc American Heart Association; 2021;10:e019968.
  2. Foldyna B, Troschel FM, Addison D, Fintelmann FJ, Elmariah S, Furman D, Eslami P, Ghoshhajra B, Lu MT, Murthy VL, Hoffmann U, Shah R. Computed tomography-based fat and muscle characteristics are associated with mortality after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. J Cardiovasc Comput Tomogr 2018;
  3. Shah RV, Murthy VL, Colangelo LA, Reis J, Venkatesh BA, Sharma R, Abbasi SA, Goff DC, Carr JJ, Rana JS, Terry JG, Bouchard C, Sarzynski MA, Eisman A, Neilan T, Das S, Jerosch-Herold M, Lewis CE, Carnethon M, Lewis GD, Lima JAC. Association of Fitness in Young Adulthood With Survival and Cardiovascular Risk: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study. JAMA Intern Med 2016;176:87–95.