Research Description
Patients with type-2 diabetes (T2D) have much sugar in blood than the normal. That makes the pumping function of the heart worse (heart failure, HF). It is difficult to care T2D patients with clear signs of HF, such as shortness of breath, because the pumping function is enough to be fatal at this stage. Thus, it is important to find HF in T2D patients before clear signs occur. Clinically, the heart’s pump function is seen by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Doctors usually look at heart size and the amount of blood coming out from heart. However, these measures do not give information enough to find HF at early stage due to similar heart function to the normal. We studied the impact of exercise training on T2D mechanisms, and collected MRI including both structural and blood flow data. With the analysis before exercise, we found T2D individuals had the abnormal structure of heart without clear signs. We also found flow analyses, including stiffness of aorta and blood flow inside heart, may be good methods to diagnose abnormalities early. This made us think our MRI data may help to find early signs of heart abnormalities by measuring heart function and flow before/after exercise. This proposal aims to test and improve abilities of these measures to detect early signs of abnormalities. Our trial will impact not only all patients suffering from T2D but also those suffered from heart diseases.Research Profile
What area of diabetes research does your project cover? What role will this particular project play in preventing, treating and/or curing diabetes?People with type-2 diabetes are more prone to heart failure (HF) and often experience bad symptoms. This research aims to detect and prevent HF in diabetes patients before symptoms occur by exploring the interaction of blood flow in the heart and vessels.
If a person with diabetes were to ask you how your project will help them in the future, how would you respond?Conventional measurements to diagnose HF before bad symptoms occur may be not sufficient. If we can find subtle changes in blood flow early, before HF symptoms occur, clinicians may establish effective ways to prevent and treat HF.
Why important for you, personally, to become involved in diabetes research? What role will this award play?Diabetes and heart diseases are closely associated with each other. This award gives me a unique opportunity to expand my research horizons and tackle current roadblocks in the fields of translational heart disease research. Furthermore, it offers a unique opportunity to leverage my background and technical training to address an important clinical problem. We hope our highly collaborative team of engineers and clinicians will enable tools for effective early diagnosis and prognosis of heart diseases using hemodynamic biomarkers.
In what direction do you see the future of diabetes research going?Most studies have focused on the cellular and molecular changes associated with diabetes and heart diseases. While these changes are crucial, distinct mechanistic symptoms also arise when the structural and functional abilities of the heart decrease. Therefore, it is important to understand simultaneously how these abilities change from the hemodynamics perspective and how they are affected at the cellular and molecular levels. By doing so, we can find optimal approaches to prevent and treat heart diseases in patients with diabetes.