Santo Domingo.- 8,000 Dominicans currently form part ofresearch into dementia by the New York Presbyterian Hospital of ColumbiaUniversity and the country’s Center for Advanced Medicine (Cedimat).
The research covers 4,000 Dominicans living in New York,especially in the sector of Washington Heights and another 4,000 in thecountry, where the presence of genes that predispose to dementia is being investigated,even finding it in as many as seven members of one same family.
The information was provided by the internist RafaelLantigua, Dominican professor of medicine at Presbyterian Hospital in New Yorkand Suzan Mascitelli, Executive Vice President Administration Patient Servicesand a team of doctors at the New York hospital, during a breakfast with ListinDiario editor-in-chief Miguel Franjul.
The physicians outlined the strengths and vision of thehospital in the areas of clinical care, medical education and research, which alsoincludes psychiatrist Lourival Baptista Neto; otolaryngologist David Kutler;Jackie Spence, executive director of the Operations Department Global Services;Mick Merritt, vice president of Global Services; Andrea Dacquino, head ofBusiness and International Relations and Nancy Velázquez, hospital ambassadorin Dominican Republic.
Research
They said Presbyterian psychiatric is ranks as the mostimportant in the US and conducts various types of research.
They noted that in 1989 Columbia University launched aninvestigation in Washington Heights into the incidence and prevalence of dementia,finding a high prevalence among African and Latin-Caribbeans. To investigatethe genetic part of the investigative team decided to extend it to DominicanRepublic, with a team of Dominican researchers.
That research involves 8,000 Dominicans here and in NewYork, and in Dominican Republic found twogenes that predispose dementia.
They noted that the results will allow having much geneticinformation on many Dominican over the next five years which will serve notonly to develop future treatments for dementia, but hypertension, cancer,diabetes and other diseases. This, they say, is being observed by theinternational community because no one has a sample of Hispanic groups as largeas the center.