2019 Recipient
Area: Medicine
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Medicine; Chief, Section of Cardiology; Chief, Section of Cardiovascular Research; J.S. Abercrombie Chair; Professor of Medicine
Dr. Ballantyne is one of the foremost experts on lipids, atherosclerosis and heart disease prevention. He helped initiate “The Reduction of Cardiovascular Events with Icosapent Ethyl–Intervention Trial” (REDUCE- IT) and most recently, as lead investigator, found that patients with hypertriglyceridemia, despite statin therapy, had a lower risk of cardiovascular events when taking icosapent ethyl, a highly purified eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) ethyl ester, compared to placebo. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. His latest research published in Circulation found that troponin I, a protein that is most commonly used to diagnose heart attack, can be detected with a new high-sensitivity assay in adults without prior cardiovascular disease or heart failure, and by adding this protein to the Pooled Cohort Equation, a commonly used risk prediction model, led to more accurate risk prediction for heart attack, stroke and heart failure hospitalization. In addition, his group is studying how genetic variation modifies the response to lipid therapy with the goal of developing personalized diet, lifestyle and pharmacotherapy based upon the genetic profile and clinical phenotype.
Dr. Ballantyne’s nomination was based on the following publications:
P Ridker, B Everett, T Thuren, J MacFadyen, W Chang, C Ballantyne, F Fonseca, J Nicolau, W Koenig, S Anker, J Kastelein, J Cornel, P Pais, D Pella, J Genest, R Cifkova, A Lorenzatti, T Forster, Z Kobalava, L Vida-Simiti, M Flather, H Shimokawa, H Ogawa, M Dellborg, P Rossi, R Troqua, P Libby, and R Glynn for the CANTOS Trial Group. Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease. September 21, 2017. N Engl J Med 2017; 377:1119-1131. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1707914.
D Bhatt, P Steg, M Miller, E Brinton, T Jacobson, S Ketchum, R Doyle, R Juliano, L Jiao, C Granowitz, J Tardif, and C Ballantyne for the REDUCE-IT Investigator. Cardiovascular Risk Reduction with Icosapent Ethyl for Hypertriglyceridemia. January 3, 2019. N Engl J Med 2019; 380:11-22. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1812792.
Saeed A, Nambi V, Sun W, Virani SS, Taffet GE, Deswal A, Selvin E, Matsushita K, Wagenknecht LE, Hoogeveen R, Coresh J, de Lemos JA, Ballantyne CM. Short-Term Global Cardiovascular Disease Risk Prediction in Older Adults. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018 Jun 5;71(22):2527-2536. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2018.02.050. Epub 2018 Mar 10.
