Medical Expert Available Regarding Heart Disease Risk Study in JACC

Christie M. Ballantyne, M.D.Director, Center for Cardiovascular Disease PreventionMethodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center in Houstonwww.debakeyheartcenter.com

Dr. Christie Ballantyne is one of the world’s foremost experts on lipids, cholesterol and statins. His research has contributed to FDA approval for many of the stains on the market today, including Crestor. His research interests focus on the prevention of heart disease, including the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and pharmacological studies to evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of lipid-lowering drug therapy. Dr. Ballantyne is also studying whether certain markers can help identify individuals at high risk for heart disease, the metabolic syndrome and diabetes. He is the director for the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and co-director of the Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic at The Methodist Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. He received his doctorate in medicine from Baylor. His postgraduate training included an internal medicine residency at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, a cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, and an American Heart Association/Bugher Foundation Fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor.

Dr. Ballantyne has been an established investigator for the American Heart Association and has several NIH grants to study leukocyte-endothelial adhesion molecules and novel markers for atherosclerosis. He has over 250 publications in the area of atherosclerosis, lipids and inflammation. He is editor for lipidsonline.org. Dr. Ballantyne is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He previously served as governor of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Cardiology and president of the Houston Chapter of the American Heart Association.