WUSTL & UTSW

Washington University School of Medicine (WU) in St. Louis, Missouri, and the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) in Dallas, TX, have developed a strong partnership to serve as a site for the MarkVCID Consortium. Both institutions are high-volume tertiary care referral centers that serve large metropolitan areas with racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and urban/rural diversity. St. Louis and Dallas are located within or adjacent to the stroke belt, with significant portions of the population at highest risk of stroke, cerebrovascular disease, and VCID. Drs. Jin-Moo Lee, Hongyu An, and Andria Ford are the lead Investigators for this study at WU. Dr. Lee is the Andrew B. & Gretchen B. Jones Professor, and Chair of Department of Neurology at WU. Dr. An is Professor of Radiology, Director of the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Center, and Associate Director of the Center for Clinical Imaging Research (CCIR) at WU. Dr. Ford is Professor of Neurology and Head of the Cerebrovascular Disease Section in Neurology at WU. Dr. Rong Zhang, the UTSW PI, is Professor of Neurology and Internal Medicine and Director of Cerebrovascular Laboratory at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine (IEEM).

Study Recruitment

To ensure enrollment of diverse patients, the WU-UTSW partnership is ideal, as the population of St. Louis is 45% African American, while that of Dallas is 42% Hispanic, thus enabling recruitment of a diverse VCID cohort for the consortium. We plan to enroll approximately 133 participants at WU St. Louis and 67 at UTSW. We anticipate that 37% of all participants will be African American and 30% will be of Hispanic ethnicity. At UTSW, physicians at the Parkland Health and Hospital System, a primary teaching hospital at UTSW, provide care for mainly Spanish-speaking patients; a dedicated, bilingual study coordinator will ensure that native-Spanish speaking participants will be able and encouraged to participate.

Study Team

WUSTL

Patient Recruitment & Retention Team: Andria Ford, MD, MSCI, co-PI; Jason Hassenstab, PhD, Neuropsychologist; Peter Kang, MD, Brain Bank; Jill Newgent, RN, BSN, Project Manager; Rebecca Sweeney, Coordinator; and Angela Birke, MS, Coordinator

Fluid Biomarkers Team: Jin-Moo Lee, MD, PhD, co-PI; Qingli Xiao, PhD, Senior Scientist; Karen Smith, Biomarker Archivist

Imaging Biomarkers Team: Hongyu An, PhD, co-PI; Dr. Chen, Computer Scientist; Chunwei Ying, PhD Candidate, Imaging

UTSW

Patient Recruitment & Retention Team: Mary Bret, MD, Co-I; Munro Cullum, PhD, Co-I; Brendan Kelley, MD, MBA, Co-I; Jan Garcia, BA, Coordinator; Leslie Rosenstein, PhD, ABPP, Co-I

Fluid Biomarkers Team: Rong Zhang, PhD, Site PI; Jan Garcia, BA, Coordinator

Imaging Biomarkers Team: Binu Thomas, PhD, Co-I