The Platform for Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular-metabolic-neurovascular Diseases (PICMAN)

Background Changes in metabolism and mitochondrial function appear to precede cardiac dysfunction, with much evidence supporting metabolic dysregulation as one of the earliest precursors of cardiovascular disease. We hypothesise that quantifiable metabolic inflexibility may be representative of an individual in his/her silent, but high-risk progression towards insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The platform for interdisciplinary cardiovascular-metabolic-neurovascular diseases (PICMAN) across National University Health System (NUHS) is a pilot, prospective, multi-ethnic cohort study in Singapore. Through extensive phenotyping in a preventive cardiology cohort, the central aim is to define the metabolic flexibility range in a cohort of individuals at elevated risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, to correlate metabolic flexibility to measures of cardiometabolic health, including diastolic dysfunction, coronary and cerebral atherosclerosis, body fat distribution and severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.