Christ Hospital gets $3.6M grant for 1st-of-its-kind heart research

The Christ Hospital Health Network has received a $3.6 million National Institutes of Health grant to lead the nation’s first clinical trial testing a potential treatment for patients with angina who have no major blockages in their heart arteries.

Dr. Odayme Quesada, medical director of the Women’s Heart Center at The Christ Hospital, will lead the five-year study, which will test whether dapagliflozin can reverse coronary microvascular disease, or CMD, in women and men with angina with nonobstructive coronary artery disease, known as ANOCA.

The condition is more common than the unique name might suggest. Nearly 1 million people in the United States are evaluated each year for obstructive coronary artery disease as a possible cause of chest pain. Up to 70% have no significant blockages, but many still experience chest pain or pressure, shortness of breath and other cardiac symptoms with exertion.

“Too many patients, particularly women, have persistent chest pain even after testing shows no blockage in their heart arteries because they have disease of the tiny arteries in the heart, known as CMD,” Quesada said. “Unfortunately, we currently do not have treatments that target and reverse CMD once a patient has developed it.”

A local investment in an international medical solution

The aDAPt-ANOCA trial will enroll 120 patients through The Carl & Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education. Half will receive dapagliflozin and half will receive a placebo, with neither the participants nor study team knowing who receives the medication until the study is complete.

Dapagliflozin is an FDA-approved medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes and heart failure. Researchers will evaluate whether it can also treat CMD.

That could address a significant gap in care. ANOCA disproportionately affects women and contributes to disparities in diagnosis, research and treatment.

Despite an estimated annual economic burden of $21 billion in the United States, clinical guidelines and treatment standards remain based on limited evidence because of a lack of randomized, placebo-controlled trials, per The Christ Hospital.

“Securing a highly competitive NIH grant of this magnitude is a tremendous distinction and a powerful recognition of Dr. Quesada’s leadership placing the Women’s Heart Center as one of the top in the country and a major accomplishment for The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education,” said Dr. Dean Kereiakes, chairman of The Christ Hospital Heart & Vascular Institute.

The study will take place at The Christ Hospital in collaboration with researchers at the University of Cincinnati. Patient enrollment will start this fall.

The Carl and Edyth Lindner Center for Research and Education will serve as the study’s sole site.

“Being selected to lead the nation’s only study of its kind reflects our commitment to performing meaningful clinical research and translating the results into better treatment options for patients,” Kereiakes added.