# TASK AREA A - MESA CORE OPERATIONS, FIELD CENTER

> **NIH NIH N01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $420,231

## 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
data will be provided to interested investigators through a defined process that encourages maximum
data utilization while protecting participant confidentiality.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11042011
- **Project number:** 75N92020D00002-P00005-759202000001-2
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** STEVEN SHEA
- **Activity code:** N01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $420,231
- **Award type:** —
- **Project period:** 2019-12-19 → 2024-12-18

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11042011

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11042011, TASK AREA A - MESA CORE OPERATIONS, FIELD CENTER (75N92020D00002-P00005-759202000001-2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-14 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11042011. Licensed CC0.

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