Vascular Calcification: Clinical Significance, Pathophysiology, and Therapeutic Approaches

About

Vascular calcification is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. While this frequently occurs as a secondary event in the intimal lesions of atherosclerosis and serves as a disease marker, its clinical significance is otherwise unclear. In contrast, calcification also occurs in the medial, smooth muscle layer of arteries, distinct from atherosclerosis, leading to vascular stiffening rather than stenosis. This medial arterial calcification (MAC) has been largely ignored due to the focus on atherosclerosis. Research now indicates that MAC is an important risk factor for cardiovascular outcomes independent of standard risk factors and results from deficiencies in endogenous inhibitors that are the basis for new potential therapies.  

Bio

Dr. O’Neill is Professor of Medicine and practicing nephrologist in the Renal Division of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been studying vascular calcification for over two decades at both the basic and clinical level, with over 50 publications on this topic. The focus of his research has been on the role of endogenous calcification inhibitors and development of clinical tools to study medial arterial calcification. He pioneered the use of arteries in tissue culture as a model of vascular calcification and the role of extracellular pyrophosphate as a critical endogenous inhibitor, and has been a leader in the use of mammography as a tool to study vascular calcification in humans.  
 

The event will be hosted by Dr. Ricardo Villa-Bellosta, group leader of the Metabolic Homeostasis and Vascular Calcification (Metabol) Group at CiMUS.

Certificates of attendance will be provided upon request at cimus.xestion [at] usc.es (cimus[dot]xestion[at]usc[dot]es). Please do not forget to enter your name and surname in the printout given during the event.