News and Updates

The work of our investigators have recently been featured by the Washington Post and the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.
 
 Dr. Brittain's study on HIV and pulmonary hypertension in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study was featured by the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. 

Center investigators, Dr. Hilary Tindle and Dr. Quinn Wells, have been working on personalizing tobacco cessation treatment. Current smokers interested in quitting can get tested for the speed of nicotine metabolism ("normal" or "slow"), which may help in pharmaceutical tailoring. This work has been featured on research news @ Vanderbilt.

V-CREATE and VACS's work looking at individuals with HIV infection and their heart failure outcomes was recently featured in research news @ Vanderbilt. This is the first large study to reveal a higher risk of heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction in HIV-infected individuals. The research news article highlights Dr. Freiberg's views regarding the implications of improved HIV treatment in the context of heart disease.

Dr. Wang, the director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine which houses V-CREATE, recently made the "highly cited" list for "exceptional impact." Thomson Reuters ranked 3,125 scientists whose papers ranked among the top 1% most cited for their subject and year of publication. Five Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty members were on the list, including Dr. Wang.

A recent study was published in Circulation by Dr. Freiberg's team that highlights the role of HIV and depression in cardiovascular outcomes. This study was the first to conclude that major depressive disorder (MDD) is an independent risk factor for heart failure in adults with HIV. Prior to this study, background research found that depression was a common comorbidity, but previous studies did not look at MDD as an independent risk factor.