Performed STSMs

Dr. Saverio Fabbri at INSERM (01-02/2021)

"The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire specific knowledge in the vascular field and to start a new collaboration between different investigators around the EU."

Dr. Maria Raffaella Martina at INSERM (07-08/2021)

"Thanks to the VascAgeNet STSM, I had the opportunity to participate in the activities of the vascular lab at INSERM and to acquire knowledge about new techniques."

Dr Peter Charlton at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania (04/2022)

"The STSM helped me a lot to deepen the collaboration established through VascAgeNet."

Shaiv Parikh at Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Spain (09/2022)

"I am thankful to VascAgeNet for providing me with this opportunity to visit UPV, bring in new ideas, and foster a collaboration between my home and host institutions."

Merve Emen at Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain (05/2023)

"This STSM was pretty informative for me and really contributed to my personal and career development."

Mirela Baba at Hospital de Sagunto, Spain (07/2023)

"The experience of this STSM have exceeded my expectations and I am thankful to VascAgeNet for giving me this wonderful opportunity."

Marton Aron Goda at Public Health and Primary Care (PHPC) Strangeways Research Laboratory, U.K. (09/2023)

"Our future plan entails the ongoing maintenance and continuous updating of the toolbox"

Stavria-Artemis Elia at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (06-07/2021)

"As our research interests (personally, and as a CVEG lab) with Dr Triantafyllou are quite similar, there is room for more collaborations in the future. I’m very excited to have carved the pathway for this with the STSM."

Alicia Del Saz Lara at National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Paris (05-07/2021)

“Thanks to Dr. Cavero-Redondo I started researching in the field of vascular health. The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire new knowledge on this topic, as well as to meet researchers such as Rosa Maria Bruno, who has been the link for future collaborations of both research groups. I am very excited and eager to continue working in this world of vascular health”

Elif Tunc Aydın at National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Paris (06-07/2022)

“I had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the scientists whose publications and studies I follow, and this increased my faith in science and scientific research. I am very lucky to have such an opportunity in terms of both my career and personal development, and I thank everyone very much.”

Xenophon Theodoridis at University of Split, Croatia (09/2022)

“The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire further knowledge in the research methodology field.”

Luca Faconti at National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Paris (01-06/2023)

"I am very grateful for this opportunity from VascAgeNet and I have no doubt that this collaboration established with Professor Bruno under this STSM will continue into the future as we develop more research ideas into the better understanding of vascular ageing. "

Diego Moriconi at National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Paris (06-08/2023)

"I am very grateful for this opportunity provided by VascAgeNet, and I have full confidence that the collaboration established with Professor Bruno and her team will continue into the future. "

Ana Belen Amado Rey at Quipu, Pisa (09/2023)

"I am really grateful to all the members of QUIPU, and especially to Vincenzo Gemignani and Elisabetta Bianchini for their continuous support, great scientific knowledge and guidance to perform this extraordinary STSM experience. "

Ryan McNally at University of Split, Split (08-10/2023)

"I am eternally grateful to VascAgeNet for this opportunity and to Professor Jerončić for her support. "

Detailed reports of performed STSMs:

The first STSM financed within the COST Action VascAgeNet has just been completed. Dr. Saverio Fabbri spent two months at the INSERM Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (PARCC-INSERM U970, Paris, France) working under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Boutouyire and Dr. Rosa Maria Bruno. Saverio participated in the COVID-19 Effects on arterial stiffness and vascular aging (CARTESIAN) study, an international initiative launched by ARTERY Society and supported by VascAgeNet, involving >50 centers in 30 countries, working together with the aim to investigate long-term consequences of COVID-19 on vascular function and structure. During the time spent at PARCC, Saverio had the opportunity to learn how to measure vascular aging by different techniques in particular carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity, central blood pressure and hemodynamics, carotid intima-media thickness and stiffness, brachial artery endothelial dysfunction by flow-mediated dilation, radial and digital artery geometry and stiffness by ultra-high frequency ultrasound, in a worldwide reference center for the non invasive arterial investigations of arteries. Part of the training consisted also in learning how to collect, analyse and interpret vascular data using the appropriate technological tools, with weekly meetings aimed at sharing and exchanging with the whole multidisciplinary team. “The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire specific knowledge in the vascular field and to start new collaboration between different investigators around the EU. », Saverio said. “Despite limitations to individual mobility related to COVID-19 pandemic, the STSM remain an important tool to promote collaboration between participants to the VascAgeNet COST Action. There are still many opportunities to receive funding” said Giacomo Pucci, STSM Coordinator. Further information is available at the website https://vascagenet.eu/short-term-scientific-missions
Stavria-Artemis Elia, from the Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Genetics Research lab (CVEG) of the Cyprus University of Technology, performed a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) of one month at the Laboratory of Primary Health Care, General Medicine and Health Services Research of the School of Medicine of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, under the supervision of Dr. Areti Triantafyllou. She collected and analyzed the results of a qualitative survey, proposed by the Working Group 5 of the VascAgeNet COST Action to more than 120 participants, about knowledge and perceptions of vascular aging. She also performed a critical review of the main new findings and is now preparing a manuscript for a future scientific publication. Stavria-Artemis Elia gained experience on how to allocate answers to thematic groups, especially those that are vague or general, on how to process thematic groups as binary variables, and how to perform summary statistics and analysis of chi-square tables to investigate how the responses were related to participant’s characteristics. “As our research interests (personally, and as a CVEG lab) with Dr Triantafyllou are quite similar”, said Stavria, “there is room for more collaborations in the future. I’m very excited to have carved the pathway for this with the STSM”. Further information is available at the website https://vascagenet.eu/short-term-scientific-missions

Thanks to the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) of the VascAgeNet COST Action I had the opportunity to participate in the activities of the vascular lab at INSERM and to acquire knowledge about new techniques for the assessment of vascular ageing on small- and medium-sized arteries, and in particular Ultra-High Frequency Ultrasound (UHF-US), an advanced technique that make it possible for the first time to non-invasively and accurately assess hand vasculature thanks to frequencies up to 70 MHz, and 3-D ultrasound (tUS).

The application of these techniques is valuable for the evaluation of hand vascular involvement in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc), a disorder characterized by alterations of the microvasculature, including digital ulcers and Raynaud’s phenomenon, in a protocol currently ongoing at INSERM.

During this STSM, images of the digital arteries of 15 SSc patients were processed thanks to a validated high-precision contour tracking algorithm for the estimation of structural and elasticity parameters of digital arteries (diameter, distension and border thickness) by ultrasound image processing.

The study and monitoring of structural parameters of the digital arteries could be relevant in the exploration of reliable imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis and pathogenesis of SSc as well as for the control of the therapies administered to patients and the related effects on the progression of the disease.

Furthermore, the results achieved thanks to this STSM will allow to evaluate the possible connection between peripheral and systemic vascular diseases.

Further information is available at the website https://vascagenet.eu/short-term-scientific-missions

 

Alicia Del Saz Lara performed a three-months STSM at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), Paris, under the supervision of Dr. Rosa Maria Bruno. The main object of the STSM was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to analyze the association between pulse wave velocity and incident hypertension. Additionally, she participated in activities that took place at INSERM during her stay in Paris.

The work was developed as a result of the combination of the expertise of both groups, on the one hand the clinical knowledge of arterial stiffness and hypertension by the INSERM group of Paris, France, and on the other hand the expertise in performing of systematic reviews and meta-analysis of the CESS group of Cuenca, Spain.

After a careful electronic search carried out in the principal electronic databases, two independent reviewers examined inclusion and exclusion criteria of each selected longitudinal study. The main information of included studies were extracted, and the meta-analysis was performed according to advanced and up-to-date statistical technologies.

Results demonstrated that increased pulse wave velocity, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure are all predictors of incident hypertension in normotensive adult subjects, with similar independent predictive value. This analysis is projected to be the first systematic review and meta-analysis of arterial stiffness and baseline blood pressure in the normotensive range as predictors of incident hypertension. A paper is currently under writing.

“Thanks to Dr. Cavero-Redondo I started researching in the field of vascular health. The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire new knowledge on this topic, as well as to meet researchers such as Rosa Maria Bruno, who has been the link for future collaborations of both research groups. I am very excited and eager to continue working in this world of vascular health”, said Alicia.

Her stay in Paris generated future collaborations to establish Early Vascular Ageing (EVA) as a construct measurable by clinicians. A series of meetings are pending between the INSERM and CESS groups to establish further research projects.

Dr Peter Charlton spent 5 days at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), hosted by Prof Vaidotas Marozas, Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Vaidotas and Peter are members of VascAgeNet’s Working Group 3. They’ve previously collaborated on several projects including a VascAgeNet review of techniques to assess vascular age from the photoplethysmogram (the PPG – the pulse wave signal measured by smartwatches and activity trackers). During this STSM, Vaidotas and Peter worked with colleagues at KTU towards harmonising photoplethysmography-based techniques for the assessment of vascular ageing.

First, Peter and colleagues worked on developing PPG signal processing techniques for the assessment of vascular ageing. Specific tasks included: designing approaches to estimate blood pressure from the PPG pulse wave signal; developing PPG signal quality assessment tools which could help ensure that vascular ageing assessments performed in daily life are reliable; and investigating how well PPG signal processing algorithms perform with different types of sensors. This involved sharing knowledge, data, and signal processing algorithms.

Second, Peter and colleagues discussed the designs of two ongoing clinical studies at KTU and at the University of Cambridge. They identified ways to harmonise the methods used in the two studies so that they provide similar datasets. It is hoped that this will enable the two groups to test the generalisability of findings across the two datasets.

Third, Peter and colleagues established a pipeline for simulating PPG signals containing artifact and arrhythmias. This involved using KTU’s tools for simulating PPG signals alongside data collected at the University of Cambridge. It is hoped that this will lead to the creation of a dataset of simulated PPG signals representative of those that would be measured from older adults in the community.

Peter received very warm hospitality from Vaidotas and his colleagues at KTU, sharing meals and sightseeing together. This helped Peter get to know his new colleagues well during a short space of time, establishing relationships which will enable them to continue to work together remotely.

I’m Elif, I’m currently running a PhD in Tissue Science Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at the Izmir Katip Celebi University Histology and Embriology Department, Turkey. My STSM was hosted by the INSERM Paris Cardiovascular Research Center PARCC, Paris, France, under the supervision of Prof. Rosa Maria Bruno during the period included between the 20 June and the 29 July 2022. The purpose of my application to STSM was to learn how to measure vascular parameters with different devices that I plan to use in current and future projects. I had the opportunity to learn all the measurement techniques I had planned and even more. I had the opportunity to work with a very good team and learn a lot from them. I attended very useful laboratory meetings and gained clinical experience. I had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the scientists whose publications and studies I follow, and this increased my faith in science and scientific research. I am very lucky to have such an opportunity in terms of both my career and personal development, and I thank everyone very much.
I am Shaiv Parikh, PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. My research is focused on biomechanical and mechanobiological drivers of ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms. My STSM was performed at Center for Research and Innovation in Bioengineering (Ci2B), Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), in the lab of Dr. Marcos Latorre. My goal for this STSM was to develop an understanding of constrained mixture models (CMM), which are mechanobiologically informed mathematical models describing growth and remodeling (G&R) of arteries. Working at UPV with Dr. Latorre was not only enriching in terms of understanding the intricate concepts of G&R, but also in developing a scientific mindset that will help me understand effects of biochemomechanical stimuli on pathophysiology of arteries. I am thankful to VascAgeNet for providing me with this opportunity to visit UPV, bring in new ideas, and foster a collaboration between my home and host institutions.
The VascAgeNet STSM offered me the opportunity to acquire further knowledge in the research methodology field. A new collaboration with Professor Ana Jeroncic was initiated, focusing on the effects of lifestyle interventions on vascular ageing, since there is a paucity of high-quality evidence. The first step in this work was to carefully scan the literature and protocol registries of systematic reviews for new papers or protocols published since the submission of the ICT grant proposal until now. According to the findings of this search, the field is very active, and physical activity as part of a lifestyle change is best avoided due to upcoming protocols and studies. During the visit, in addition to learning about the syntax of the PubMed search engine and building the search filter with adequate sensitivity and specificity to perform systematic reviews, we also discussed meta-analysis methodology and best approaches to different scenarios. STSM achieved its planned goals and expected outcomes, since I’ve got the chance to collaborate with Professor Ana Jeroncic and combine my clinical knowledge acquired by my bachelor and master’s degrees with the methodological skills of Professor Jeroncic. Furthermore, my collaboration with Professor Jeroncic helped improve my knowledge in various topics including conceptualization, and designing of systematic review and meta-analysis, data extraction procedures as well as data analysis and synthesis. This collaboration will result in a publication when the process of the systematic review will be completed in the next months. In addition, this specific project it will allow me to gain more knowledge regarding the clinical field of obesity and vascular ageing which is the main subject of my PhD degree.
Thanks to the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) of the VascAgeNet COST Action, I had the opportunity to establish a close collaboration with Prof. Bruno to assess the potential and feasibility of creating an international registry to examine the incremental values of PWV in predicting outcome (major adverse cardiovascular events, mortality, decline in kidney function) in a multi-ethnic cohort of subjects with hypertension and to clarify the role of PWV in the clinical management of patients with hypertension. As part of the STSM, I visited the host institution ((Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale – INSERM U970, Paris France) where I worked closely with Professor Bruno on the project. The face-to-face interaction has been instrumental in achieving the aims of the mission thanks to sharing of ideas and time for debate. We have successfully completed the first phase of the project which includes the design and set up of a big database/international registry to collect the variables needed for the registry and the statistical plan. We have achieved the main goals of this STSM which is the design of an observational multicentre, cohort study based on a registry. Thanks to the collaboration with Professor Bruno, we were able to indentify the major outcomes of this research project. As part of this STSM we successfully implemented the initial phase of the project related with the design of the registry and drafting of relevant ethical clearance. We are now planning to carry on with the initiative and we have discussed the next phase which include a robust plan for data collection and to seek support from other European and non-European centres who are known to use PWV for research and clinical purposes. This STSM and subsequent studies may provide valuable information on the usefulness of markers of aortic stiffness in guiding treatment targets in hypertension and may help us to explore the interaction between ethnicity and treatment. I am very grateful for this opportunity from VascAgeNet and I have no doubt that this collaboration established with Professor Bruno under this STSM will continue into the future as we develop more research ideas into the better understanding of vascular ageing.
I am Merve Emen, a first-year integrated Ph.D. student at the Biotechnology department, and I am working at the Biophysics Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Yeditepe University, Turkey. I have performed the STSM (Short-Term Scientific Mission) at the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid between 18/05/2023 and 28/05/2023. The purpose of the STMS was to learn the pressure and wire myography technique that I have planned to perform in our laboratory in Turkey. It was a great opportunity for me to be in the lab and learn the technique from people who have specialized in the area for years. In this way, I have learned the details and crucial parts of the technique. Besides that, I had a chance to practice technique. In my opinion, visiting the different research groups is developing your point of view on science and supporting you to search for and perform more things. One of the moments I enjoyed most in the laboratory was the scientific discussion. It really contributes your point of view to the topic. In the lab, everyone has specialized in the different fields of science, so connecting the different fields of science improves your knowledge and exhibits the importance of studying interdisciplinary. In this way, the new ideas that I can investigate in my future project came to mind and reinforced my interest in the topic. Furthermore, after the STMS was finished, we arranged a meeting to discuss future projects and make a collaboration between two groups. Finally, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Silvia Magdalena Arribas Rodriguez for accepting my application to her lab and all the other lab members, Santi, Pilar, and Fatima, who supported and helped me learn the technique. This STSM was pretty informative for me and really contributed to my personal and career development.
Thanks to the Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) organized by the VascAgeNet COST Action, I had the opportunity to conduct my research activities at the prestigious Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale – INSERM U970 in Paris. During my research period, I engaged in a close collaboration with Professor Rosa Maria Bruno, which allowed me to gain access to data from the “COVID-19 effects on ARTErial StIffness and Vascular AgeiNg” (CARTESIAN) study – a prospective, multicenter, cohort study. The objective of my application was to perform an analysis aimed at elucidating the relationship between renal function, arterial stiffness, and vascular aging in patients with COVID-19. This STSM led to the discovery of previously unknown mechanisms of interaction between COVID-19 and kidney disease that contribute to the acceleration of vascular ageing. Face-to-face interaction was decisive for the achievement of the mission objectives thanks to the sharing of ideas, moments of discussion and the precious advice of Professor Bruno. Furthermore, the chance to meet researchers and scientists in person during the periodic meetings enriched my scientific knowledge and generated new ideas for translational research in the field of nephrology and arterial stiffness. Therefore, this STSM has the potential to support my academic journey as an early career researcher. I am very grateful for this opportunity provided by VascAgeNet, and I have full confidence that the collaboration established with Professor Bruno and her team will continue into the future.
My name is Mirela Baba and I am a PhD student at Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara, Romania. The focus of my research is on the impact of the lipids on the early vascular ageing. Thanks to the VascAgeNet STSM,  I had the chance to expand my knowledge of research methods. I had the opportunity to collaborate and work closely with Professor Enrique Rodilla Sala. During this STSM in the Hypertension Unit of the Sagunto Hospital in Valencia, Spain, I participated in acquisition, management, and handling of arterial stiffness data in a longitudinal study with hypertensive patients. I was actively engaged in data collection during the follow-up phase of this study. I used multiple methodologies to evaluate early vascular ageing : 1) local carotid PWV, 2) PWVao recorded with oscillometric device Mobil-O-graph, 3) 24-hour PWVao recorded with Mobil-O-graph, 4) intima-media thickness evaluated by ultrasound (ESAOTE) and I was trained to use a new technique for me: measurement of carotid distensibility using echotracking. An additional value of this STSM is the generation of new insights into associations between serum lipids and arterial stiffness. We have managed to find significant correlations between IMT measured by echotracking with cholesterol in patients with suspected hypertension. The experience of this STSM have exceeded my expectations and I am thankful to VascAgeNet for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I am confident that it will be the beginning of a long-lasting collaboration with Professor Enrique Rodilla Sala and his team.
The purpose of my visit was to release an open-source standardised software package for the analysis of photoplethysmography (PPG) signals to aid vascular aging assessment. During my visiting, the currently released pyPPG toolbox has been completed and validated on. The manual annotations of the 219 recordings, including more than 3,000 fiducial points are made open access to ensure reproducibility of the results and to enable further investigations and advancements in the field of PPG analysis. The detector consistently demonstrated high performance, with a mean absolute error of less than 10 ms for all fiducial points. The pyPPG toolbox offers robust beat detection, precise extraction of 15 fiducial points, and a comprehensive collection of 74 standard PPG morphological biomarkers. The toolbox documentation is available on the https://pyppg.readthedocs.io/en/latest website, and the manuscript has been submitted to the special issue of Physiological Measurement. Our future plan entails the ongoing maintenance and continuous updating of the toolbox, incorporating the latest advancements specifically tailored to the diverse applications and specialized purposes of PPG analysis.

My name is Ana Belen Amado Rey and I am doing my Postdoc at the technical university of Freiburg, in Germany. My research focuses on the development of new ultrasound technologies and techniques to derive blood pressure and the arterial stiffness at various arterial sites (carotid, brachial, radial). By using high accurate diagnose devices the risks that may lead to cardiovascular diseases can be better diagnosed and prevented in time.

Last year I could validate the accuracy of various stiffness and blood pressure models for ultrasound by using in vitro and ex vivo cardiovascular setups in our laboratory. However, I do not have access to real data to validate those models in vivo. Thanks to the Short-Time scientific mission performed at the company QUIPU, in Pisa, Italy, I had access to healthy volunteers data based on carotid ultrasound imaging and tonometry and brachial sphygmomanometry. The brachial diastolic pressure and mean arterial pressure were used as calibration values for carotid tonometric and ultrasound measurements. Models and signal processing were applied to the ultrasound signals in order to derive local estimation of blood pressure, which were analyzed bit-to-bit for various subjects. The tonometric device was employed as reference for comparison with the ultrasound measurements. I am confident that we can publish some interesting results from this STSM.

I am really grateful to all the members of QUIPU, and especially to Vincenzo Gemignani and Elisabetta Bianchini for their continuous support, great scientific knowledge and guidance to perform this extraordinary STSM experience. Also, thanks a lot to the COST Action CA18216 VascAgeNet to make this unique experience possible. I would definitely do it again.

I am Dr. Ryan John McNally, a pharmacist by background and now working as a postdoctoral research associate at King’s College London. Despite having developed and published systematic reviews and meta-analysis as first author, my analysis has been largely limited to mean differences in various continuous cardiovascular outcomes estimated in intervention studies.

I recently developed a collaboration with Professor Rosa Maria Bruno (Université Paris Cité, INSERM-PARCC, France) and Professor Ana Jerončić (University of Split, Croatia) to develop a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prognostic value of aortic pulse wave velocity in prediction of major cardiovascular disease events. We aspire to conduct this systematic review and metaanalysis with the aim to provide an overview of relevant studies and calculate robust quantitative estimates of the predictive value of arterial stiffness as expressed by aortic PWV for different outcomes such as total CV events (i.e., heart failure, stroke), CV mortality, and all-cause mortality.

The main objective of this STSM was to work with Professor Jerončić on the statistical meta-analysis of the data derived from this. This required a close collaboration for the curation of already extracted data from the literature, analysis of the data and in depth understanding of the statistical process involved and I aimed to learn about the complex statistical analysis and dataset structure set up that comes with harmonisation of data of this type.

Thanks to this STSM, I spent some time at the Medical Faculty of Split working with Professor Jerončić who has extensive experience in biostatistics and research methodology. With her guidance, I was able to learn the fundamental techniques and statistical methods required to perform the meta-analysis on data of this type whilst collaborating with her on the clinical implications of the statistical outcome. The opportunity of working in Split with Professor Jerončić allowed me to observe and learn from a different research environment which certainly helped promote the knowledge transfer (which would be difficult to achieve with only remote interactions) and was in line with the Action objectives.

On a more personal level, this STSM provided me the opportunity to refine my knowledge in statistical methods for large meta-analysis and the use of large population data in medical research. This close collaboration with Professor Jerončić also generated new ideas for research projects in the field of arterial stiffness and vascular aging. As an early career researcher, this STSM has supported my academic journey and assisted me to undergo the transition to become an independent investigator.

I am eternally grateful to VascAgeNet for this opportunity and to Professor Jerončić for her support.

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