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About Us 

The Heart Disease Prevention Program in the Division of Cardiology at UC Irvine's School of Medicine is made up of multidisciplinary group of professionals dedicated to using the newest strategies in cardiovascular disease prevention to fight heart disease, including research, teaching, community education and service. The program works in concert with UC Irvine Healthcare's Preventive Cardiology Program and its Cardiology Services division, which provides patient care.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death in the United States and in many developing countries. Its manifestations include myocardial infarction (heart attack), stroke, heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, and other vascular conditions. Our research and approach to patient management focuses on the use of newer screening and risk-assessment strategies, biomarkers and diagnostic tools; we emphasize the combination of these strategies to best detect people at greatest risk for cardiovascular problems. Our mission is not only to understand which approaches work best in people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease (secondary prevention), but also to prevent the onset of initial occurrences of cardiovascular disease (primary prevention) and eliminate the risk factors that lead to disease (primordial prevention).

Our collaboration in many national and international studies — including the Framingham Heart Study, the Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, the Cardiovascular Health Study, the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT), the Women's Health Initiative, WHI and others — has produced valuable findings that can be translated from the bench to the bedside, providing the best opportunities for reducing cardiovascular disease.

Some of our faculty's important research accomplishments include: Providing a greater understanding about the role of earlier, subclinical atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in the prediction of future cardiovascular disease; understanding the significance and extent of subclinical atherosclerosis assessed by coronary calcification and other modalities in the U.S. population; improving our understanding about the role metabolic syndrome, a pre-diabetic condition, plays in the development of cardiovascular disease and its relation to atherosclerosis; developing the etiology of and importance of isolated systolic hypertension and pulse pressure in cardiovascular disease risk; understanding the inter-relationships between metabolic syndrome, diabetes, pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease risk. 

Our affiliated Preventive Cardiology Program at UC Irvine Heathcare's Cardiovascular Center in Orange provides clinical services aimed at the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The team of specialists includes cardiologists, an exercise physiologist and a dietitian, all of whom work together to help patients with and without preexisting cardiovascular disease control important risk factors. including obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking.