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Chris Longenecker, MD

Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathology
School of Medicine
Founding Faculty Co-Lead
Andrew B. Kaufman World Medicine Pathway
School of Medicine

Research Information

Research Interests

I am a non-invasive cardiologist and leading expert on the cardiovascular complications of HIV infection in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy. I graduated medical school from The Ohio State University and then completed internal medicine training at the University of California, San Francisco. I was a cardiology fellow at University Hospitals/Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH) where I then joined the faculty of the Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute in 2013.

In parallel programs of research in Cleveland and Uganda, I have studied the effect of chronic inflammation on vascular and structural heart disease in treated HIV infection. In partnership with the Joint Clinical Research Center and the Uganda Heart Institute, my work also aims to build cardiovascular infrastructure in Uganda and to leverage HIV/AIDS infrastructure for non-communicable disease care, with a specific focus on rheumatic heart disease.

Our EXTRA-CVD study (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03643705) will test the effectiveness of a nurse-led intervention to improve blood pressure and cholesterol management among persons living with HIV at University Hospitals, MetroHealth Medical Center, and Duke Health.

I am currently supported by multiple NIH and private foundation grants. Even as an early stage investigator, I have received teaching and mentoring awards and have considerable experience in mentoring trainees in the USA and in Uganda.

External Appointments

Cardiologist
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
Medtronic Professor of Biomedical Discovery and Innovation and Medical Director
UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute Research and Innovation Center

Publications

Below is a selection of published works.

For a complete list.

  1. Watkins DA, Johnson CO, Colquhoun SM, Karthikeyan G, Beaton A, Bukhman G, Forouzanfar MH, Longenecker CT, Mayosi BM, Mensah GA, Nascimento BR, Ribeiro ALP, Sable CA, Steer AC, Naghavi M, Mokdad AH, Murray CJL, Vos T, Carapetis JR, Roth GA. The Global, Regional, and National Burden of Rheumatic Heart Disease, 1990-2013. N Eng J Med. 2017 Aug 24;377(8):713-722.
  2. Longenecker CT, Margevicius S, Liu Y, Schluchter MD, Yun CH, Bezerra HG, McComsey GA. Effect of Pericardial Fat Volume and Density on Markers of Insulin Resistance and Inflammation in Patients With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection. Am J Cardiol. 2017 Oct 15;120(8):1427-1433.
  3. Dirajlal-Fargo S, El Kamari V, Sattar A, Alam K, Funderburg N, Labbato D, Pirro L, Longenecker CT, Wilson WH, McComsey GA. Effect of Statin on Arginine Metabolites in treated HIV-infection. Atherosclerosis. 2017 Nov; 266:74-80.
  4. Longenecker CT*, Morris SR*, Aliku TO, Beaton A, Costa MA, Kamya MR, Kityo C, Lwabi P, Mirembe G, Nampijja D, Rwebembera J, Sable C, Salata RA, Scheel A, Simon DI, Ssinabulya I, Okello E. Rheumatic Heart Disease Treatment Cascade in Uganda. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2017 Nov;10(11). *Co-first authors
  5. Alaiti MA, Goud A, Ramani G, Bagchi S, Sawicki S, Longenecker CT, Jenkins T, Pauza D, Park M, McComsey GA, Simonetti O, Hoit B, Rajagopalan S. Design of the exercise MRI evaluation of HIV-pulmonary arterial hypertension longitudinal determinants (EXHALTED) trial. J Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown). 2017 Nov;18(11):888-896.
  6. Beaton A, Aliku T, Dewyer A, Jacobs M, Jiang J, Longenecker CT, Lubega S, Mirabel M, Mirembe G, Namuyonga J, Okello E, Scheel A, Tenywa E, Sable C, Lwabi P. Latent Rheumatic Heart Disease: Identifying the Children at Highest Risk of Unfavorable Outcome. Circulation. 2017 Dec 5;136(23):2233-2244.
  7. Scheel A, Beaton A, Okello E, Longenecker CT, Otim IO, Lwabi P, Sable C, Webel A, Aliku T. The Impact of Peer Support Group for Children with Rheumatic Heart Disease in Uganda. Patient Educ Couns. 2018 Jan;101(1):119-123.
  8. Longenecker CT, Sullivan CE, Morrison J, Hileman CO, Zidar DA, Gilkeson R, O’Donnell J, McComsey GA. The effects of HIV and smoking on aortic and splenic inflammation. AIDS. 2018 Jan 2;32(1):89-94.
  9. Okello E, Longenecker CT, Scheel A, Aliku T, Rwebembera J, Mirembe G, Sable C, Lwabi P, Beaton A. The Impact of Regionalization of a National Rheumatic Heart Disease Registry: The Ugandan Experience. Heart Asia. 2018 Jan 13;10(1):e010981.
  10. Attizzani GF, Al-Kindi SG, Dalton JE, Alkhalil A, DeCicco A, Mayuga M, Funderburg NT, Blackstone EH, Parikh S, Longenecker CT, Lederman MM, Simon DI, Costa MA, Zidar DA. Anisocytosis and leukocytosis are independently related to survival after transcatheter aortic valve replacement. J Cardiovasc Med (Hagerstown). 2018 Apr;19(4):191-194.
  11. Webel AR, Moore SM, Longenecker CT, Currie J, Horvat Davey C, Perazzo J, Sattar A, Josephson RA. A Randomized Controlled Trial of the SystemCHANGE Intervention on Lifestyle Behaviors in HIV+ Adults. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2018 May 1;78(1):23-33. * American Heart Association Nursing Council 2018 Research Article of the Year
  12. Chang AY, Nabbaale J, Nalubwama H, Okello E, Ssinabulya I, Longenecker CT, Webel AR. Motivations of Women of Reproductive Age in Uganda with Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Mixed Methods Study of Experiences in Stigma, Childbearing, Anticoagulation, and Contraception. PLoS One. 2018 Mar 28;13(3):e0194030.
  13. Webel AR, Perazzo J, Longenecker CT, Jenkins T, Sattar A, Rodriguez M, Schreiner N, and Josephson R. The Influence of Exercise on Cardiovascular Health in Sedentary Adults With Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. 2018 May/Jun;33(3):239-247.
  14. Stehouwer N, Okello E, Gupta V, Bailey A, Josephson RA, Madan-Mohan SK, Osman M, Longenecker CT. Development and Validation of a Teaching Module for Echocardiographic Scoring of Rheumatic Mitral Stenosis. Glob Heart. 2018 Jun; 13(2): 105-111.
  15. Longenecker CT, Kalra A, Okello E, Lwabi P, Omagino JO, Kityo C, Kamya MR, Webel AR, Simon DI, Salata RA, Costa MA. A Human-Centered Approach to Cardiovascular Care Infrastructure Development in Uganda. Glob Heart. 2018 Dec;13(4):347-354.
  16. Ekoru K, Young EH, Dilon DG, Longenecker CT, Sandhu MS. Antiretroviral therapy is associated with a twofold higher probability of raised triglycerides: Pooled Analyses in 21 023 individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Global Health, Epidemiology and Genomics. 2018; 3(e7). Epub 2018 May 8.
  17. Shah ASV, Stezle D, Lee KK, Beck EJ, Alam S, Clifford S, Longenecker CT, Strachan F, Bagchi S, Whiteley W, Rajagopalan S, Kottilil S, Newby DE, Nair H, McAllister DA, Mills NL. Global burden of cardiovascular disease in people living with the human immunodeficiency virus. Circulation. 2018 Sep 11;138(11):1100-1112.
  18. Hovis IW, Namuyonga J, Kisitu GP, Ndagire E, Okello E, Longenecker CT, Sanyahumbi A, Sable CA, Penny DJ, Lwabi P, Kekitiinwa AR, Beaton A. Decreased prevalence of Rheumatic Heart Disease Confirmed Among HIV Positive Youth. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2018 Jul 31. [Epub ahead of print]
  19. Feinstein MJ, Steverson A, Ning H, Pawlowski A, Schneider D, Ahmad F, Sanders J, Sinha A, Nance R, Achenbach C, Delaney J, Heckbert S, Shah S, Hanna D, Hsue P, Bloomfield G, Longenecker CT, Crane H, LloydJones D. Adjudicated Heart Failure in HIV-Infected and Uninfected Men and Women. J Am Heart Assoc. 2018 Nov 6;7(21):e009985.
  20. Sung KT, Kuo R, Sun JY, Hung TC, Chang SC, Liu CC, Yun CH, Wu TH, Hung CL, Yeh HI, Hou CJ, Cury RC, Zidar DA, Bezerra HG, Longenecker CT. Associations between CT-determined Visceral Fat Burden, Hepatic Steatosis,Circulating White Blood Cell Counts and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio. PLoS One. 2018 Nov 20;13(11):e0207284.

 

Education

Doctor of Medicine
The Ohio State University
2006
Bachelor of Arts
Eastern Mennonite University
2001
Diploma in French Language Studies
Université de Nancy- France
2000

Residencies, Internships and Fellowships

Research Fellow
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
2011
Chief Fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center
2011
Postdoctoral Fellow
Heart and Lung Institute, The Ohio State University
2007

Additional Information

Dr. Longenecker is founding faculty co-lead of the Andrew B. Kaufman World Medicine Pathway of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He is also the Medtronic Professor of Biomedical Discovery and Innovation and Medical Director of the UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute Research and Innovation Center. His clinical expertise is in preventive cardiology and non-invasive cardiac imaging, and he is a leading expert on the cardiovascular complications of HIV infection in the era of combination antiretroviral therapy. Dr. Longenecker graduated medical school from The Ohio State University and completed internal medicine training at the University of California, San Francisco. He returned to Ohio in 2009 for a cardiology fellowship at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, where he served as Chief Fellow. He joined the faculty of the Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute in July of 2013, where he started an innovative and multi-disciplinary HIV Cardiometabolic Risk Clinic. His research program focuses on the effect of chronic inflammation on cardiovascular risk in HIV and on practical approaches to CVD prevention in this special population, both in Cleveland and in sub-Saharan Africa.  His work is supported by multiple NIH and private foundation grants, including a multi-site study to improve blood pressure and cholesterol management in the HIV specialty clinic context.  He has won numerous teaching awards including the Department of Medicine 3rd Year clerkship faculty teaching award and the internal medicine residency mentorship award.