Director:  Robert P. Hebbel, M.D.

What aspects of health are related to vascular biology?

Vascular diseases are major health problems and encompass the leading causes of death and disability.  This category of clinical disease includes:

  states of cardiovascular risk such as hyper-cholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes;

  the systemic features of atherosclerosis, such as coronary and peripheral artery disease, and cerebrovascular disease and stroke;

  conditions for which angiogenesis plays a role, such as wound healing and cancer, and retinal disease in diabetes, atherosclerosis and sickle disease;

  disorders of endothelial dysfunction and vascular dysregulation, as occurs in shock, sepsis, Raynaud’s disease, and migraine;

  primary and secondary pulmonary hypertension;

  the sickling disorders;

  thrombophilia and thrombotic complications such as stroke, arterial or venous thrombosis, fetal wastage, and pulmonary embolism;

  abnormal bleeding due to inherited or acquired states such as hemophilia and disseminated intravascular coagulation;

  inflammatory diseases that involve participation of blood and vessel wall.