This project is for the maintenance of the specimen and data base emanating from the Pathobiological Determinants of Atherosclerosis in Youth (PDAY) and Risk Factors in Early Human Atherogenesis (RFEHA) studies (PDAY Archive) over the next four years.
The specific aims of this proposal are (1) to continue to maintain this national research resource of fixed and frozen specimens with accompanying demographic data, Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) risk factor data, and atherosclerotic lesion data and (2) to continue to make this unique resource available to interested investigators around the world for novel studies in human atherosclerosis. PDAY and RFEHA were investigator-initiated multi-center cooperative studies based on a rigidly developed protocol, which had anatomically standardized samples of aorta and coronary arteries of over 3,000 young black and white subjects, age 15-34, who died suddenly of trauma. Risk factor data was also obtained in a majority of the cases. So far, these studies have yielded over 100 manuscripts for the PDAY group. These reports in turn have generated a widespread enthusiastic response from investigators throughout the scientific community in the U.S. and abroad. This unique resource should continue to contribute in important ways to our understanding of atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of CHD and strokes, and the leading cause of debilitating illnesses and death in this country. The changes in the medical, scientific, financial, social, and legal environments over the past decade make it impossible for a study that provides human autopsy material as in this unique resource to be repeated.
Studies using this resource may contribute to our understanding of the underlying cause of coronary heart disease and strokes, the leading cause of debilitating illnesses and death in this country.
