Research Project R1: SCI and Your Heart

Cardiometabolic Risk, Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease in People with Spinal Cord Injury

The goal of this project is to develop and test a new tool that will assess the cardiometabolic risk (CMR) in people with spinal cord injury (SCI).

What is cardiometabolic risk?

A spinal cord injury is very traumatic, and it often limits how much a person can move, compared to before the injury. An individual with an SCI will often lose muscle mass and gain fat. These changes in the body can bring about other harmful conditions, or secondary conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity, often without the person knowing. Cardiometabolic Syndrome is the condition that leads to these secondary conditions. Knowing your cardiometabolic risk is very important, however, no good assessment tool exists for people with SCI today.

This research project will recruit 125 adults with SCI in the DC and Miami metropolitan areas. Participants will provide the research team with information about their health, injury, family history, and other important health related information. Body measurements and a blood sample will be taken. All of this will help the research team determine true cardiometabolic risk.

At the end of the 5-year project, the research team will develop a web-based cardiometabolic risk assessment tool (RISK) that will allow doctors and people with SCI to determine their true risk for having cardiometabolic syndrome, thus allowing people to know their risk of other events such as stroke, heart attack, and death. Additionally, the project will produce a body mass index (BMI) table adjusted specifically for people with SCI.

If you live in the DC or Miami metropolitan area and would like to participate in this important study, or have questions or comments, please e-mail Emily Ward, the project coordinator or leave a message on our toll free line: 1-877-278-0644.