Instructor, Cardiovascular Institute, Instructor, Medicine
https://profiles.stanford.edu/kevin-alexander
Dr. Kevin Alexander is an advanced heart failure and transplant cardiologist at Stanford University School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Stanford Amyloid Center and Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He then finished his fellowship in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology at Stanford University.
Dr. Alexander’s clinical and research interests include cardiac amyloidosis, cardiac sarcoidosis, and mechanical circulatory support. He is particularly interested in transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy and pathologic cardiac aging. He has co-authored numerous publications on cardiac amyloidosis and has received multiple research grants in this field, including funding for his work from the National Institutes of Health. He recently received a 4-year Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award through the American Heart Association to support his studies in transthyretin cardiomyopathy.
SAGE Project: Evaluating Cognitive Decline in Blacks and Elderly Patients with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy
As a SAGE Scientist, he is studying the relationship between cognitive impairment and Cardiac Amyloidosis. Transthyretin amyloid (ATTR) cardiomyopathy is an underdiagnosed disease that confers significant morbidity and mortality particularly among Blacks and the elderly. Preclinical data suggest that transthyretin may also play a role in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Low transthyretin levels have been associated with disease progression in Alzheimer’s dementia; however, whether ATTR cardiomyopathy patients have an increased risk for cognitive impairment has not been well studied. Our study entitled “Evaluating Cognitive Impairment in Blacks and Elderly Patients with Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy” will explore whether there is a pathophysiologic link between these two important conditions that impact older adults from diverse backgrounds.
