Different types of heart attacks and other heart muscle injuries in a long-term, diverse community cohort
Official title: Contemporary Classification of Myocardial Injury Events in MESA: Defining Distinct Risk Factor Associations with Myocardial Infarction Type 1-5 and Acute Non-Ischemic Myocardial Injury
Funded at Vanderbilt University Medical Center · NIH-11181612 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Using 14 years of MESA data, the team will reclassify heart attacks and non-ischemic heart muscle injuries to link each type to different risk factors.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Vanderbilt University Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Nashville, United States) |
| Project start | August 20, 2021 |
| Project end | July 31, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $861,329 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HL158976-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11181612 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults with or at risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, including people with prior heart attacks or elevated cardiovascular risk markers, match the kinds of patients this work focuses on.
✕Less likely to help
People without cardiovascular disease risk factors, children, or those whose heart problems are unrelated to atherosclerosis (for example, isolated congenital or primary valve disease) are less likely to see direct benefit.
What this research studies
If you were part of the MESA group, investigators will re-review more than 18,000 recorded clinical events collected over 14 years to sort them into specific heart attack subtypes (types 1–5) and non-ischemic heart muscle injuries. They will use newly developed tools to improve the accuracy and efficiency of this event review and adjudication. The researchers will compare traditional and nontraditional risk factors (for example, cholesterol, calcium scores, and biomarkers) to see which ones are linked to each subtype. This project uses existing MESA participant data rather than testing new treatments or requiring new clinic visits.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help doctors predict, prevent, and tailor care for different kinds of heart attacks and heart muscle injury.
How similar studies have gone: Large cohort studies have documented heart attack rates, but few have re-adjudicated events using modern subtype definitions across multi-ethnic cohorts, so this approach is building on prior work while applying newer classification tools.
Where this research is happening
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Defilippis, Andrew — Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Defilippis, Andrew
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.