MULTI-ETHNIC STUDY OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS (MESA) - FIELD CENTER

The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) is a study of the correlates, predictors, and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a diverse population-based sample of men and women aged 45-84 who had no evidence of clinical CVD at baseline. During the initial funding period of MESA, 6,814 participants were recruited from six Field Centers during 2000-2002 and examined for evidence of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, using computed tomography, cardiac MRI, carotid ultrasound, flow-mediated brachial artery dilation, radial artery tonometry, ankle-brachial index measurement, and retinal photography. A number of other variables including abdominal aortic CT, carotid MRI, cardiac MRI tagging for measures of regional myocardial function; established and putative laboratory risk markers; socioeconomic, psychological, behavioral and environmental characteristics; and genetic variants were assessed in subsets of the MESA cohort. Examinations of selected components were repeated over six subsequent examinations spanning approximately 20 years and the cohort has been continuously followed for clinical CVD events since the baseline examination. This contract aims to continue the follow-up and examination of the MESA participants in an effort to address the following scientific objectives: 1) enhance statistical power to perform analyses of predictors of clinical outcomes, particularly in informative subgroups; 2) study the progression of subclinical to clinical CVD; and 3) identify new risk factors or interactions among factors that inform disease pathophysiology. In addition, the following operational goals will be addressed: 1) continue cohort follow-up and information collection to document clinical events; 2) continue to foster scientific collaborations; and 3) conduct a limited clinical examination of the MESA participants as a platform for ancillary study examination components. The study will continue to support in-depth ancillary studies that are funded outside of the NHLBI contract. These studies will be operationally integrated into the main study, and the data will be shared current MESA and NIH data-sharing policies. The study’s data will be provided to interested investigators through a defined process that encourages maximum data utilization while protecting participant confidentiality.