

Vascular damage About theme
The mission of the theme Vascular damage is to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease by deciphering causes and consequences of vascular wall pathology.
read moreVascular damage About theme
The mission of the theme Vascular damage is to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease by deciphering causes and consequences of vascular wall pathology.The theme is centered around three lines of research:
- Pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and its consequences
- Pathogenesis of genetic, metabolic and endocrine causes of vascular damage
- Personalized diagnostics and treatments of atherosclerosis and its consequences
Objectives
- We aim to unravel how traditional and novel cardiovascular risk factors induce a pro-atherogenic phenotype of these cells by performing in vitro and ex vivo studies on cells of the innate immune system.
- We plan to develop and improve noninvasive vascular imaging techniques to detect vulnerable plaques and vascular inflammation.
- We aim to develop and implement techniques to study inflammation and its impact on atherosclerosis in humans in vivo.
- Using animal models, we aim to develop and validate biomarkers to study the impact of inflammation on progression of atherosclerosis in humans in vivo.
- We aim to investigate the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome.
- We plan to study the mechanisms by which inactivity results in cardiovascular injury and evaluate interventions to prevent or reverse this.
- We want to improve diagnosis and treatment of the adrenal causes of hypertension and to explore mechanisms of vascular injury specifically related to these disorders.
- We aim to explore the role of gender differences in atherogenesis.
- We will study promising strategies to prevent ischemia-reperfusion injury, such as pharmacological and ischemic conditioning.
- We will study how current cardiovascular guidelines can be implemented most effectively.
Lines of research
Pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and its consequences
We aim to unravel the role of the immune system in the development of atherosclerosis in the context of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
read morePathogenesis of genetic, metabolic and endocrine causes of vascular damage
We aim to unravel the pathophysiology and to improve the diagnosis and treatment of adrenal causes of hypertension, especially aldosteronism, pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and hypercortisolism.
read morePathogenesis of genetic, metabolic and endocrine causes of vascular damage
We aim to unravel the pathophysiology and to improve the diagnosis and treatment of adrenal causes of hypertension, especially aldosteronism, pheochromocytoma/paraganglioma, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and hypercortisolism, in order to prevent cardiovascular complications related to these disorders. Furthermore, we investigate metabolic and genetic causes of atherosclerosis, arterial aneurysms and dissections.Personalized diagnostics and treatments of atherosclerosis and its consequences
We aim to optimize personalized cardiovascular risk management based on individualized risk estimation.
read morePersonalized diagnostics and treatments of atherosclerosis and its consequences
We aim to optimize personalized cardiovascular risk management based on individualized risk estimation (by diagnostic innovations) and to identify new interventions to slow the progression of vascular damage and its consequences.News & agendas
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Reduction in cerebral blood flow related to decline in brain function in people with Alzheimer's diseaseBrain areas involved in memory and task performance show the largest decline in perfusion2 May 2022
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Young Investigator Award for Esmée Bakker14 April 2022
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Want to be sustainable and cool? Choose fans more and aircon lessKeep cool and help the environment12 April 2022
Organization
Centers of clinical expertise
Information might be only available in Dutch.