Christie Ballantyne, M.D.

Christie M. Ballantyne, M.D. is Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Ballantyne also serves as Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief and Clinical Director of the Section of Atherosclerosis in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine; Director of the Maria and Alando Ballantyne Atherosclerosis and Lipid Laboratory at Baylor and Methodist; and Co-Director of the Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic at the Methodist Hospital.

Dr. Ballantyne earned his doctorate in medicine from Baylor College of Medicine in 1982, and completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. Dr. Ballantyne completed a fellowship in clinical cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine. This was followed by an American Heart Association/Bugher Foundation Fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor.

Dr. Ballantyne's clinical research is focused on the prevention of atherosclerotic vascular disease. As the director of the core laboratory for the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, Dr. Ballantyne studies the role novel molecular markers play in identifying individuals at risk for coronary heart disease. Dr. Ballantyne has also been an established investigator of the American Heart Association and has several NIH grants to study leukocyte-endothelial adhesion molecules and novel markers for atherosclerosis.

A renowned expert in his field, Dr. Ballantyne has more than 200 published publications in the areas of atherosclerosis, lipids and inflammation, and has presented at dozens of national and international medical meetings and lectures. He is editor for lipidsonline.org, serves on several editorial boards and is the immediate past governor of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Ballantyne recently presented clinical data at the American Heart Association 2004 Scientific Sessions in an oral presentation entitled "Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2, High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, and Risk for Ischemic Stroke in Middle-Aged Men and Women in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study." Dr. Ballantyne reported that, unlike cholesterol levels, which did not vary between cases and noncases, levels of Lp-PLA2 were significantly higher in ischemic stroke cases. Dr. Ballantyne found that elevated Lp-PLA2 levels were independently associated with a nearly twofold increased risk for ischemic stroke, even after adjustment for traditional risk factors and C-reactive protein (CRP). Furthermore, high levels of both Lp-PLA2 and CRP predicted the highest risk for ischemic stroke.

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