Adam Gepner, MD, clinical associate adjunct professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, and Ryan Pewowaruk, PhD, a former postdoctoral trainee through the University of Wisconsin (UW) Cardiovascular Research Center, have been named 2024 Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Innovation Award finalists for a new technique for assessing arterial stiffness. The invention may help clinicians tailor treatment plans and reduce overall cardiovascular risk for patients with hypertension.

High blood pressure or hypertension affects millions of people in the United States. “It’s the major leading, modifiable cause of cardiovascular disease and death,” Dr. Gepner says.

The technique begins with measuring a patient’s arterial or blood vessel stiffness by any traditional method. That measurement is fitted to a patient-specific model and used to simulate stiffness under different stimuli, including different blood pressures. This helps split the original measurement into the two main components of stiffness: structural or age-related stiffness, and load bearing stiffness due to high blood pressure.

Because each component responds differently to treatments, knowing how each contributes to an individual’s stiffness could help personalize an individual’s hypertension treatment plan.

For example, Dr. Gepner explains, “If you have a high component that’s due to blood pressure, we know we should be treating your blood pressure more aggressively to decrease your overall stiffness.”

While risk prediction in medical practice is an enormously complicated task, Dr. Gepner believes the new technique could provide valuable insight on blood pressure’s role in cardiovascular risk.

“This really has the potential to revolutionize blood pressure care worldwide.”

Learn more about the project in this video from WARF:

Banner: Dr. Adam Gepner outside the Madison VA. Credit: Clint Thayer/Department of Medicine.