vanderpoolrr@email.arizona.edu

520.626.6453

Steele 7341

Profile on UA Medicine Site

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Rebecca Vanderpool

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

My research focuses on quantifying right ventricular-vascular coupling and pulmonary vascular stiffness in patients and animal models with pulmonary vascular disease. During my postdoctoral training in Belgium with Dr. Robert Naeije, MD, PhD, I established upper limit of normal of the increase in pulmonary artery pressure with exercise in normal patients. In collaboration with another group, we were able to show that subjects with pulmonary vascular disease will have decreased distensibility of the resistance vessels and an increase of pulmonary artery pressure outside of the limits of normal. During my postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh in the Vascular Medicine Institute, my research focused on quantifying the interaction between the right ventricle and pulmonary circulation using the ratio of stroke volume to end-systolic volume in the right ventricle. We were the first to investigate the association between RV-PA coupling and mortality and transplant in pulmonary hypertension patients. Through collaborations in the Vascular Medicine Institute, I quantified right ventricular function in animal models of pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension in the setting of left heart disease. As a new investigator at the University of Arizona, I am continuing the clinical research to quantify right ventricular function in patients with pulmonary vascular disease and investigate the effect of therapy on right ventricular function, RV-PA coupling, and pulmonary vascular stiffness in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Degrees

Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering
- University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
B.S. Biomedical Engineering
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Work Experience

Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2013 - 2016)
Postdoctoral Scholar, Free University of Brussels (ULB) (2011 - 2013)
Research Assistant, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, Wisconsin (2005 - 2010)
Teaching Assistant, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, Wisconsin (2004 - 2006)

Awards

Max Harry Weil Award for Resuscitation Science
- American Heart Association - Sponsored by the Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR), Fall 2018
Early Career Research Achievement Award
- American Thoracic Society - Assembly on Pulmonary Circulation, Spring 2018
PVRI Best Clinical Abstract
- Pulmonary Vascular Research Institue, Spring 2017
Abstract Scholarship
- American Thoracic Society, Spring 2017
Certificate of Achievement in 2016
- PVRI - Committee for Young Clinicians and Scientists, Spring 2017

Interests

Research

Pulmonary Hypertension, Right Ventricular Function, Pulmonary Vascular Mechanics, andExercise Physiology

Courses

Honors Independent Study

PSIO 399H (Spring 2018)

Selected Publications

Journals/Publications

Goncharov, D. A., Goncharova, E. A., Tofovic, S. P., Hu, J., Baust, J. J., Pena, A. Z., Ray, A., Rode, A., Vanderpool, R. R., Mora, A. L., Gladwin, M. T., & Lai, Y. C. (2018). Metformin Therapy for Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with HFpEF versus PAH. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine.
Hosokawa, S., Vanderpool, R. R., Ishii, T., Nishiyama, M., & Doi, S. (2018). What Causes Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension in Down Syndrome With Congenital Heart Disease?. Circulation journal : official journal of the Japanese Circulation Society, 82(6), 1513-1514.
Naeije, R., Vanderpool, R., Peacock, A., & Badagliacca, R. (2018). The Right Heart-Pulmonary Circulation Unit: Physiopathology. Heart failure clinics, 14(3), 237-245.
Vanderpool, R. R., & Naeije, R. (2018). Hematocrit-corrected Pulmonary Vascular Resistance. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 198(3), 305-309.
Vanderpool, R. R., Saul, M., Nouraie, M., Gladwin, M. T., & Simon, M. A. (2018). Association Between Hemodynamic Markers of Pulmonary Hypertension and Outcomes in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction. JAMA cardiology, 3(4), 298-306.
Whitaker, M. E., Nair, V., Sinari, S., Dherange, P. A., Natarajan, B., Trutter, L., Brittain, E. L., Hemnes, A. R., Austin, E. D., Patel, K., Black, S. M., Garcia, J. G., Yuan Md PhD, J. X., Vanderpool, R. R., Rischard, F., Makino, A., Bedrick, E. J., & Desai, A. A. (2018). Diabetes Mellitus Associates with Increased Right Ventricular Afterload and Remodeling in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. The American journal of medicine, 131(6), 702.e7-702.e13.
Bellofiore, A., Vanderpool, R. R., Brewis, M. J., Peacock, A. J., & Chesler, N. C. (2017). A novel single-beat approach to assess right ventricular systolic function. Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), jap.00258.2017.
Jang, S., Vanderpool, R. R., Avazmohammadi, R., Lapshin, E., Bachman, T. N., Sacks, M., & Simon, M. A. (2017). Biomechanical and Hemodynamic Measures of Right Ventricular Diastolic Function: Translating Tissue Biomechanics to Clinical Relevance. Journal of the American Heart Association, 6(9).
Kelly, N. J., Radder, J. E., Baust, J. J., Burton, C. L., Lai, Y. C., Potoka, K. C., Agostini, B. A., Wood, J. P., Bachman, T. N., Vanderpool, R. R., Dandachi, N., Leme, A. S., Gregory, A. D., Morris, A., Mora, A. L., Gladwin, M. T., & Shapiro, S. D. (2017). Mouse Genome-wide Association Study of Pre-clinical Group II Pulmonary Hypertension Identifies Egfr. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology.
Meng, Q., Lai, Y. C., Kelly, N. J., Bueno, M., Baust, J., Bachman, T., Goncharov, D., Vanderpool, R. R., Radder, J. E., Hu, J., Goncharova, E., Morris, A., Mora, A. L., Shapiro, S. D., & Gladwin, M. T. (2017). Development of a Mouse Model of Metabolic Syndrome, Pulmonary Hypertension, and Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (PH-HFpEF). American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology.
Pena, A., Kobir, A., Goncharov, D., Goda, A., Kudryashova, T. V., Ray, A., Vanderpool, R., Baust, J., Chang, B., Mora, A. L., Gorcsan, J., & Goncharova, E. A. (2017). Pharmacological Inhibition of mTOR Kinase Reverses Right Ventricle Remodeling and Improves Right Ventricle Structure and Function in Rats. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology, 57(5), 615-625.
Potoka, K. P., Wood, K. C., Baust, J. J., Bueno, M., Hahn, S. A., Vanderpool, R. R., Bachman, T., Mallampalli, G. M., Osei-Hwedieh, D. O., Schrott, V., Sun, B., Bullock, G. C., Becker-Pelster, E. M., Wittwer, M., Stampfuss, J., Mathar, I., Stasch, J. P., Truebel, H., Sandner, P., , Mora, A. L., et al. (2017). NO-independent sGC Activation Improves Vascular Function and Cardiac Remodeling in Sickle Cell Disease. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology.
Rogers, N. M., Sharifi-Sanjani, M., Yao, M., Ghimire, K., Bienes-Martinez, R., Mutchler, S. M., Knupp, H. E., Baust, J., Novelli, E. M., Ross, M., St Croix, C., Kutten, J. C., Czajka, C. A., Sembrat, J. C., Rojas, M., Labrousse-Arias, D., Bachman, T. N., Vanderpool, R. R., Zuckerbraun, B. S., , Champion, H. C., et al. (2017). TSP1-CD47 signaling is upregulated in clinical pulmonary hypertension and contributes to pulmonary arterial vasculopathy and dysfunction. Cardiovascular research, 113(1), 15-29.
Tang, H., Vanderpool, R. R., Wang, J., & Yuan, J. X. (2017). Targeting L-arginine-nitric oxide-cGMP pathway in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulmonary circulation, 7(3), 569-571.
Vanderpool, R. R., Desai, A. A., Knapp, S. M., Simon, M. A., Abidov, A., Yuan, J. X., Garcia, J. G., Hansen, L. M., Knoper, S. R., Naeije, R., & Rischard, F. P. (2017). How prostacyclin therapy improves right ventricular function in pulmonary arterial hypertension. The European respiratory journal, 50(2).

Poster Presentations

Bernardo, R., Wickstrom, K., Desai, A., Nair, V., Vanderpool, R. R., Rischard, F., Bernardo, R., Wickstrom, K., Desai, A., Nair, V., Vanderpool, R., & Rischard, F. (2017, September). Echocardiographic measures of right ventricular function poorly correlate with changes in contractility and coupling in treatment naïve patients with pulmonary artery hypertension before and after therapy.. European Respiratory Society Congress. Milan, Italy: European Respiratory Society.
Rosado-Toro, J. A., Avery, R., Altbach, M. I., Rischard, F., & Vanderpool, R. R. (2017, November). Feasibility of MRI-RHC based pressure volume loops in control and PAH patients. AHA Annual Conference. Anahaim, CA: American Heart Association.

Presentations

Vanderpool, R. R. (2017, August). Diastolic Right Ventricular Function in Severe Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. China Heart Congress (CHC) 2017. Beijing, China: Chinese Medical Association (CMA) and National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases of China (NCCD).
Vanderpool, R., Knapp, S. M., Honkanen, I., Wickstrom, K., Desai, A., Bernardo, R., & Rischard, F. (2017, January). Feasibility of determining right ventricular diastolic stiffness from a standard right heart catheterization. Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute Annual Conference. MIami, FL: Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute.
Vanderpool, R., Knapp, S. M., Honkanen, I., Wickstrom, K., Desai, A., Bernardo, R., & Rischard, F. (2017, May). Resting right ventricular diastolic function and pulmonary arterial compliance associate with right ventricular contractile reserve in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.. American Thoracic Society Conference. Washington, D.C.: American Thoracic Society.