DALLAS - April 22, 2026 (NEWMEDIAWIRE) - Scientific research teams from Mass General Brigham Heart and Vascular Institute in Boston, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Center and the University of Pittsburgh will lead a new $15 million initiative dedicated to better understanding how to diagnose and treat heart valve disease. The Strategically Focused Research Network on Earlier Detection and Delaying Progression of Valvular Heart Disease is the latest research network funded by the American Heart Association, a global force changing the future of health for all.

According to the American Heart Association’s 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics, more than 80 million people worldwide are living with some type of heart valve disease, and the numbers are climbing. In the U.S., the condition contributes to more than 57,000 deaths each year.

Heart valve disease is a common cardiovascular condition in which one or more of the heart’s four valves are narrowed and restrict blood flow or do not close properly which causes blood to flow backward rather than into the heart chambers or large blood vessels. Left untreated, it can eventually lead to heart failure, arrhythmia, recurrent hospital admissions, reduced quality of life and early death. Heart valve disease becomes more common with age and often progresses silently, so many people are not aware they have the disease. Identifying early warning signs and diagnosis before symptoms become severe can expand treatment options, prevent complications and improve quality of life.

“The prevalence of heart valve disease is increasing, but it rarely makes headlines and often shows no early warning signs. By the time symptoms appear, damage may already be done - making early detection and treatment essential,” said Stacey E. Rosen, M.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association and executive director of the Katz Institute for Women’s Health and senior vice president of women’s health at Northwell Health in New York City. “The American Heart Association has identified heart valve disease as a key focus area and continues to support clinicians and health systems in improving patient care through our Heart Valve Initiative and our Target: Aortic Stenosis™ quality improvement program. This new research network is an exciting way to extend our impact even earlier by supporting innovative, cutting-edge scientific exploration. I look forward to seeing what we can learn from these progressive teams.”

The four-year awards, which started April 1, 2026, will include collaborative research projects across the three funded centers. The research centers and the projects include:

• Mass General Brigham’s VALVE-iPROTECT Center – This center will be led by Elena Aikawa, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, director of the Heart Valve Translational Research Program and professor of medicine at Mass General Brigham Hospital in Boston. The VALVE‑iPROTECT Center aims to change how calcific aortic stenosis (AS) is prevented and treated by finding it earlier, identifying who is most at risk and developing strategies to stop it before severe damage occurs. AS is a common and serious heart valve disease in which the aortic valve gradually becomes stiff and narrowed. As the opening gets smaller, the heart must work harder to pump blood to the rest of the body, which can eventually lead to heart failure or even death. Currently, there is no medication that can stop or slow this disease, so patients are often monitored for years until valve replacement becomes necessary. New research shows that this disease begins years earlier than symptoms appear and is driven by cholesterol-related inflammation and calcium buildup, especially involving a blood particle called lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a). Researchers will undertake three different projects to study the earliest molecular changes that trigger valve calcification, use advanced imaging to track active disease and develop clinical calculators to identify issues in people before major valve damage is visible. The team will combine these insights with blood tests, multi-omics, genetics and population studies. By linking discoveries from cells and imaging to large community studies and clinical trials, the Center will develop new tools to predict risk and guide prevention. Together, this work seeks to shift AS care from late-stage surgery to early detection and prevention, supporting the American Heart Association’s mission to improve cardiovascular health.

• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Strategic Hub for Interventions to Promote Early Detection and Lifelong Protection from Advanced Rheumatic Heart Disease (SHIELD) Center – The SHIELD Center will be led by Andrea Beaton, M.D., M.S., FAHA, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati and pediatric cardiologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati. The SHIELD Center is structured around global collaboration, including a long-standing partnership between co-investigators at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Rheumatic Heart Disease Collaborative in Uganda at the Uganda Heart Institute in Kampala, and The University of Washington Department of Global Health in Seattle. Additional co-investigators and partners represent: Centre College, in Danville, Kentucky; Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle; Menzies School of Health Research in Dili, Timor Leste; Ochsner Children’s Hospital in New Orleans and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The center teams will undertake three different research projects focused on rheumatic heart disease (RHD), the leading cause of heart valve disease in children and young adults, affecting at least 55 million people worldwide, especially in low‑income countries and underserved communities. Although advanced RHD is largely preventable, progress has been slow, even after the World Health Organization’s 2024 guidelines recommending heart ultrasound screening for early detection and ongoing care to prevent disease progression. The SHIELD Center aims to close this gap by showing how these recommendations can work in real life and will be integrated into national RHD action plans across various settings. Working with organizations in Brazil, Timor‑Leste and Uganda, SHIELD will test the performance, adaptability and feasibility of strategies such as: artificial intelligence–supported heart screening to detect RHD earlier, digital patient registries to connect people to ongoing care and community‑based support systems to help patients stay on preventive medications. Patients, clinicians, and health systems will help shape each program to ensure it fits local needs, while researchers track both health outcomes and real‑world effectiveness. SHIELD will also use the RHD registry create a global RHD quality improvement network to support wider adoption of successful approaches and establish a multidisciplinary training program to coach the next generation of global heart health leaders. Together, this international effort aims to prove that RHD is a solvable problem - and that early detection and prevention can spare millions of people from lifelong illness and disability.

• The University of Pittsburgh’s Center For Aortic Valve Disease Prediction And Integrated Research – This center will be led by Cynthia St. Hilaire, Ph.D., FAHA, director of the Center for Integrative Valve Science and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and will include a collaboration with teams at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. The three projects for this center will focus on early detection, disease pathogenesis and treatment of aortic stenosis. This Research Center’s approach considers how known risk factors, systemic inflammation and the biomechanical environment interact to sensitize the valve towards calcification. Lp(a) is a genetically determined blood factor that increases AS risk. But many people with high Lp(a) never develop valve disease. That means other factors influence whether a valve calcifies or not. Inflammation can speed up valve damage and calcification processes. Similarly, the valve is under dynamic physical stress every heartbeat. Inflammation, abnormal stretching, and disturbed blood flow may drive disease by synergizing with blood-based risk factors to induce valve injury. The effects of these forces are hard to study in typical lab tests, so the teams from this center will build more realistic systems to study progression of the disease under conditions of real valve motion and blood flow. The goal is to shift AS care from late surgery to early detection and prevention. The Research Center will: (1) identify people at highest risk using practical biomarkers, clinical imaging, and machine learning; (2) test how Lp(a), inflammation and mechanics combine to drive disease in realistic lab systems; and (3) understand how Lp(a) initiates calcification of valve cells and develop treatments that block these processes. The researchers aim to learn who is most at risk, what physical forces trigger valve damage and how to stop the process early - so fewer patients need surgery.

The American Heart Association has invested almost $300 million to establish 19 Strategically Focused Research Networks, each aimed at addressing a key strategic issue identified by the Association’s volunteer Board of Directors. Prior networks have been studying a wide variety of important topics including, but not limited to, prevention; hypertension; the health of women; heart failure; obesity; vascular disease; atrial fibrillation; arrhythmias/sudden cardiac death; cardiometabolic health/type 2 diabetes; health technology; cardio-oncology; the biological impact of chronic psychosocial stress, the role of inflammation in cardiovascular health and cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome. Each network centers around scientific knowledge and knowledge gaps, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the key research topic. Three to six research centers make up each network, bringing together investigators with expertise in basic, clinical and population/behavioral health science to find new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent heart disease and stroke.

Funding scientific research and discovery through initiatives like these awards is a cornerstone of the century-old American Heart Association’s lifesaving mission. The Association has now funded more than $6.1 billion in cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health research since 1949, making it the single largest non-profit, non-government supporter of heart and brain health research in the U.S. New knowledge resulting from this funding continues to save lives and directly impact millions of people in every corner of the U.S. and around the world.

More than 8 in 10 (82%) U.S. adults say they are confident in the American Heart Association to provide trustworthy information related to public health, according to a recent Annenberg Policy Center poll. The Association ranked second only to an individual’s personal health care provider.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities, the organization has been a leading source of health information for more than one hundred years. Supported by more than 35 million volunteers globally, we fund groundbreaking research, advocate for the public’s health, and provide critical resources to save and improve lives affected by cardiovascular disease and stroke. By driving breakthroughs and implementing proven solutions in science, policy, and care, we work tirelessly to advance health and transform lives every day. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, X or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

For Media Inquiries:

Cathy Lewis: cathy.lewis@heart.org

For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)

heart.org and stroke.org

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