“Previous cardiac research focused on the heart while failing to account for the relationship between the heart and the aorta, despite their intimate connection,” Rodriguez said. “For example, aortic stiffness significantly increases with age and is associated with heart failure and hypertension, but how that occurs isn’t well understood. We hypothesize that aortic stiffness impairs the mechanical interaction, or ‘coupling,’ between the aorta and the heart, which in turn contributes to heart failure. We’re hoping this study will shed light on these mechanisms and that we can use the heart-aorta relationship to help identify people who are at risk for heart failure earlier.”

The team’s goal is to identify new and improved ways to identify patients who my face a heightened heart failure risk. Hispanic patients face a heightened risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD-related mortality, so every bit of new information about this population is crucial.

“We hope our study leads to new ways of identifying people at high risk of heart failure or for detecting it earlier, providing an opportunity to intervene to prevent severe disease,” Rodriguez said.