The Augusta Heart Study

Abstract

Objective: The Augusta Heart Study is a NIH-funded multiracial longitudinal project, started in 1985, that examines cardiovascular health of children and adolescents in the Metro Augusta area. The objective was to develop a longitudinal cohort starting in childhood that would identify precursors and underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms that contribute to preclinical manifestations of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The focus was initially on sociodemographic factors, ethnicity, physical activity and obesity. In 2002, an additional focus on stress-related mechanisms of hypertension risk was initiated. The main objective of this paper is to introduce the rich database of this longitudinal multiracial cohort to researchers interested in assessing risk factors of lifetime development of CVD. Methods: Overall, 585 youth were recruited during 1985-2002. This cohort was maintained, and new age-matching participants were added so that, by 2007, the participant pool included 300 African Americans and 307 European Americans. Results: Valuable data, including childhood and young adulthood cardiovascular phenotypes and genotypes, were collected over a thirty-year span. Data were carefully curated and a comprehensive database was created to store data in digital format. As an illustration of the valuable research potential of the database, we performed a longitudinal analysis of the left ventricular mass using a mixed effect growth curve model. Conclusions: The database allows longitudinal analysis of precursors of cardiovascular disease and their underlying mechanisms, allowing to explore beyond simple epidemiology and orienting toward translational research. This cohort may also be used to evaluate the development of other disease processes. Our analysis of the left ventricular mass points out to the early onset and rapid elevation of blood pressure and cardiac mass in African Americans compared to European Americans, and males compared to females.