Cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, heart failure, hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, heart arrhythmia, congenital heart disease, valvular heart disease, carditis, aortic aneurysms, peripheral artery disease, thromboembolic disease, and venous thrombosis. The underlying mechanisms vary depending on the disease. Coronary artery disease, stroke, and peripheral artery disease involve atherosclerosis. This may be caused by high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, lack of exercise, obesity,
Helen Hobbs Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Cardiology Research, Philip O'Bryan Montgomery Jr., M.D., Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology, and Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development. In 1999, she co-founded the Dallas Heart Study with Dr. Jonathan Cohen with a grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. This study takes genetic samples of thousands of people, representative of the population of Dallas, and correlates them to the subject's health metrics. Through this study, she found that variations in the gene PCSK9 led to increased protection from cardiovascular disease. Recent results from the genetic study show that