# Patterns of Cardiopulmonary health across the life course

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $780,201

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Chronic lung disease and heart failure (HF) are highly prevalent, commonly co-occur, and are associated with
significant morbidity and mortality. Work from our group and others has demonstrated an independent
relationship between chronic lung disease and incident HF that may be driven in part by inflammation. We have
also documented that even in the absence of symptomatic lung disease, impaired lung function defined by
spirometry is associated with adverse cardiac remodeling on echocardiography and incident HF events. While
symptomatic lung disease and HF often occur in the elderly, many younger adults have relatively asymptomatic
impairment in lung health and cardiac structure and function. These subclinical cardiopulmonary abnormalities
develop during the key modifiable period from young adulthood to midlife. However, data are sparse on the
timing and associated mechanisms of the transition from health to disease spanning young adulthood to midlife,
and related race-sex differences. Without identifying these unique patterns of change, it will not be possible to
screen for subclinical changes and employ prevention strategies prior to irreversible damage in the lung and
heart. This requires upstream identification at the earliest detectable change. While spirometry is the gold
standard for lung disease detection, it is a relatively crude and insensitive measure of impaired lung health. In
contrast, lung injury (quantified using a novel local histogram analysis developed and validated by our group)
from computed tomography (CT) scans is a more sensitive and earlier indicator of impaired lung health (e.g. due
to tobacco, air pollution, and respiratory viral infection). Therefore, we now propose to take advantage of the
Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study’s unique platform to study the temporal
relationship of and mechanisms underlying the transition from lung and heart health to disease. To-date, our
group has investigated the predictors and consequences of impaired lung health and HF, separately, in CARDIA.
In this project, we will build upon our prior work by analyzing CT scans to determine the concurrent evolution of
lung injury and adverse cardiac remodeling and identify mechanisms by assaying a multitude of blood-based
biomarkers (using a multiplexed array) and performing 4-dimensional flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance
imaging (cMRI). We will test the hypothesis that detailed imaging and blood-based markers can inform clinically
relevant endotypes reflecting dynamic changes in lung injury and adverse cardiac remodeling during a key
vulnerable period of life through the following specific aims: (1) Determine the longitudinal association between
lung injury and left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV); (2) Determine the risk of subclinical and clinical HF
among joint lung injury and LVEDV trajectory groups; and (3) Determine the hemodynamic mediators of the
association between lung injury and adver...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10280550
- **Project number:** 1R01HL159250-01
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sadiya Sana Khan
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $780,201
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10280550

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10280550, Patterns of Cardiopulmonary health across the life course (1R01HL159250-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10280550. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*