# TASK AREA A - MESA CORE OPERATIONS, FIELD CENTER.

> **NIH NIH N01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2024 · $808,268

## Abstract

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 five subsequent examinations spanning
approximately 16 years and the cohort has been continuously followed for clinical CVD events since the
baseline examination.
This proposal is written in response to the NHLBI RFP (No. 75N92018R0078, Multi-Ethnic Study of
Atherosclerosis – Field Center) that seeks 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 across the entire
“MESA Suite” of studies, per 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.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11041965
- **Project number:** 75N92020D00005-P00004-759202000001-2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** KAROL WATSON
- **Activity code:** N01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $808,268
- **Award type:** —
- **Project period:** 2019-12-19 → 2024-12-18

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11041965

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11041965, TASK AREA A - MESA CORE OPERATIONS, FIELD CENTER. (75N92020D00005-P00004-759202000001-2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-14 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11041965. Licensed CC0.

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