Current Projects

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a potentially life-threatening rhythm disorder of the heart. While there are several different causes of VT, about 10% of patients have no apparent structural cardiac abnormalities, in what is called “idiopathic” VT. In the most common form of idiopathic VT, called RVOT, patients have no family history of VT.

Research conducted under the leadership of Weill Cornell Cardiology Professor Bruce Lerman since the 1980s has suggested that RVOT is caused by a mutation in the gene for a protein called Gsα, and indeed such a mutation has been discovered in cardiac cells in Dr. Lerman’s laboratory. This is surprising, because in general the cells of the heart, unlike other organs where this mutation is found, do no continue to grow and divide after adulthood.

Current research, funded by the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation, involves reproducing the Gsα mutation in mice, in order to investigate the properties of the heart and in particular its responsiveness to VT. Developing a mouse model of this unique form of VT represents an important milestone in the cellular and molecular elucidation of this disorder.

This study seeks to determine whether patients who have received a device called an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), and who are considered to be at a high risk for certain dangerous heart rhythm disorders, will have fewer of these negative outcomes if they are treated with a drug called Ranolazine. Positive results would add a valuable treatment option for many patients.

This study is being conducted at approximately 70 centers across the United States, and is funded by National Institutes of Health grant U01 HL096607. The principal investigator at Weill Cornell Cardiology is Dr. George Thomas. The study is currently open to enrollment: see studies open to enrollment.

The Strong Heart Study is designed to assess cardiovascular disease risk factors in American Indians. It is the largest epidemiologic study of American Indians ever undertaken, and the largest prospective, multicenter, epidemiological and genetic study focused on diabetes and cardiovascular disease ever conducted in any ethnic group. The study has included 13 American Indian tribes and communities in Arizona, Oklahoma, and North and South Dakota. It has been supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the United States National Institutes of Health since 1988.

Weill Cornell Cardiology has served as the ECG and Ultrasound Reading Center for the Strong Heart Study since 1992, under the direction of Dr. Richard B. Devereux, Medical Director of Weill Cornell’s Echocardiography Laboratory. Cardiology collaborators include Dr. Mary Roman, Dr. Peter Okin, and Dr. Ingrid Hriljac. This research has resulted in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.

The Strong Heart Study has made and is continuing to make major scientific contributions and improvements to the health of American Indians as well as all other citizens of the United States. The current stage of the project, entitled Cardiovascular Disease in American Indians, is funded under NIH grant R01 HL109282 through the year 2018. In addition, a subsidiary project, the Strong Heart Stroke Study, is funded under NIH grant R01 HL093086.

For more information about the Strong Heart Study, visit strongheart.ouhsc.edu.