Kevin Whitehead, M.D.

Education and Training:

Medical School: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
Residency:  Internal Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, CANADA
Fellowship:  Cardiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Clinical Specialties:

• Echocardiography
• Adult Congenital Heart Disease
• General Cardiology

Research Interests:

• Clinical and developmental aspects of vascular malformation syndromes
  
  Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) are found in 1 in every 200 people.  These abnormal, dilated vascular channels that occur in the brain are prone to rupture and leak, leading to headaches, seizures, stroke or even death. A familial form of the disease is linked to mutations in any of three distinct proteins.  We are committed to understanding the role of these proteins in vascular development, to better understand how they produce disease in humans.
  
  Our recent work has indicated that statin drugs have fovorable effects on the abnormal vascular barrier function seen in mice with mutations in Ccm2 (one of the proteins linked to the human disease). We are committed to moving our observations from the bench back to the bedside. We believe that observational trials of statin therapy in patients with CCM could form the foundaation for more definitive randomized trials. These trials form a second significant research interest.
  
  Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia is another common inherited vascular malformation syndrome that results in telangiectasias and larger arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in various organ systems. A variety of imaging strategies are used to identify patient with AVM. Screening for pulmonary AVM (pAVM) is often first done iwth saline contrast echocardiography, followed by CT angiography. The ability of contrast echo to determine patients at highest risk for pAVM and adverse outcomes remains crude. As a consultant with the Utah HHT Center I am collaborating with radiology to better define the relationship between echo, CT and the underlying gene defects.

Recent Publications:

• Whitehead KJ, Chan AC, Navankasattusas S, Koh W, London NR, Ling J, Mayo AH, Drakos SG, Jones CA, Zhu W, Marchuk DA, Davis GE, Li DY. The cerebral cavernous malformation signaling pathway promotes vascular integrity via Rho GTPases. Nat Med. (2009).
• Navankasattusas S*, Whitehead KJ*, Suli A, Sorensen LK, Lim AH, Zhao J, Park KW, Wythe JD, Thomas KR, Chien CB, Li DY. The netrin receptor UNC5B promotes angiogenesis in specific vascular beds. Development 135(4):659-67(2008).
• Whitehead KJ, Plummer NW, Adams JA, Marchuk DA, and Li DY. Ccm1 is required for arterial morphogenesis: implications for the etiology of human cavernous malformations. Development 131(6):1437-1448 (2004).

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