About Us: Awards

The Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition has presented the Coalition’s second annual Best PAD Research Award in Epidemiology or Preventive Medicine to Danielle Laurin, PhD at the organization’s Fifth Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.  The Best PAD Research Award honors the work of investigators and acknowledges the creation of new clinical research relevant to the understanding and/or treatment of peripheral arterial disease.   

Dr. Laurin is associate professor at the Laval University Geriatrics Research Unit in Quebec City, Quebec. Dr. Laurin and her colleagues were recognized for their work on the research study, “Ankle-to-Brachial Index and Dementia: The Honolulu-Asia Aging Study,” published in the journal Circulation (Circulation, Journal of the AHA, Nov 13, 2007; 116: 2269-2274.).  The study examined the association between a low ankle-brachial index (ABI) measure with dementia and with subtypes of the disease.  Study co-authors are Kamal H. Masaki, MD, Lon R. White, MD, MPH and Lenore J. Launer, PhD.

Analyzing data from the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study (HAAS), a prospective community-based study of 3,734 Japanese American men aged 71 to 93 years old of age at baseline in 1991 to 1993, Dr. Laurin and her colleagues’ analysis included 2,588 men who were free of dementia at the first assessment, had an ABI measure, and were examined up to 2 more times for dementia between 1994 and 1999. The sample included 240 incident cases of dementia (144 of Alzheimer’s disease, 46 of vascular dementia, and 50 of dementia of other causes). A low ABI was associated with an increased risk of dementia and vascular dementia and was weakly associated with Alzheimer’s disease, particularly in individuals who were carriers of the apolipoprotein E_4 allele.

"The ABI is a simple and reliable test to assess P.A.D., and our results suggest that it is associated with the incidence of clinical dementia. Preventive strategies against P.A.D. could, therefore, delay the onset or progression of dementia,” stated Dr. Laurin.

"On behalf of the P.A.D. Coalition, we are delighted to present this prestigious award to Dr. Laurin," said Alan T. Hirsch, M.D., Chair of the P.A.D. Coalition, Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and Director of the Vascular Medicine Program at the Minneapolis Heart Institute.  “These findings suggest that PAD, as defined by a low ABI, not only powerfully predicts cardiovascular ischemic events, amputation and death, but that P.A.D., even when subclinical, also predicts the onset of dementia,” said Dr. Hirsch. 

The Peripheral Arterial Disease (P.A.D.) Coalition is an alliance of leading health organizations, vascular health professional societies, and government agencies united to raise public and health professional awareness about lower extremity P.A.D.  Established in 2004, the P.A.D. Coalition is coordinated by the Vascular Disease Foundation (www.vdf.org), a national, not-for-profit section 501(c)(3) organization and is supported by the following national sponsors:  the Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership; Cordis Endovascular, a division of Cordis Corporation; Abbott Vascular; AnGes, Inc.; AstraZeneca; Bard Peripheral Vascular; Baxter Healthcare; BioMedix; Cook, Inc; W.L. Gore & Associates; Medtronic; Novo Nordisk; Omron; and Summit Doppler.