Suma Konety, M.D., M.S.

Suma Konety (shkonety@umn.edu) is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division. She joined the University Minnesota Cardiovascular Division faculty in 2009 with clinical and research interests comprising cardio-oncology, imaging, and epidemiology. By 2010, Dr. Konety established a collaborative cardio-oncology clinic at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Childhood and adult cancer survivors who are asymptomatic and were previously considered free of cardiovascular disease are now diagnosed, monitored, and treated during the early stages of heart failure. Cardio-oncology/imaging protocols developed by Dr. Konety explore the early detection of cardiac damage in patients receiving cancer therapies, and also the utility of advanced imaging techniques to improve risk stratification in patients prior to stem-cell transplantation: since the University cardio-oncology program’s inception, several patients who previously would not qualified have been successfully transplanted. Dr. konety’s ongoing research studies include Cardio-Oncology Registry Database (CORD), and a CORD biorepository substudy. In addition to her cardio-oncology research, Dr. konety is a co-investigator for ongoing cardiovascular epidemiology studies, including Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) and the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA); her primary focus is to evaluate cardiac structural and functional changes in various health conditions. She served as the echocardiography site lead for the University of Minnesota ARIC field centers visit 5 from 2011-2013, and is an ARIC expert reviewer and adjudicator of heart-failure cases. In addition, Dr. Konety is a co-investigator for the Center for Healthy African-American Men through partnership (CHAAMPS), where she is exploring the benefits to African-American men with cardiovascular-disease risk who adhere to lifestyle changes.

Several representative publications from her work include:

• Blaes A, Prizment A, Koene RJ, Konety S. Cardio-oncology Related to Heart Failure: Common Risk Factors Between Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease. Heart Fail Clin. 2017 Apr;13(2):367-380. doi: 10.1016/j.hfc.2016.12.006

• Bello NA, Hyacinth HI, Roetker NS, Seals SR, Naik RP, Derebail VK, Kshirsagar AV, Key NS, Wilson JG, Correa A, Adams RJ, Egede LD, Longstreth WT Jr, Choudhary G, Gee BE, Hughes AL, Shah AM, Manson JE, Allison M, Burke GL, Folsom AR, Carty CL, Reiner AP, Solomon SD, Konety SH. Sickle cell trait is not associated with an increased risk of heart failure or abnormalities of cardiac structure and function. Blood. 2017 Feb 9;129(6):799-801. doi: 10.1182/blood-2016-08-705541

• Konety SH, Koene RJ, Norby FL, Wilsdon T, Alonso A, Siscovick D, Sotoodehnia N, Gottdiener J, Fox ER, Chen LY, Adabag S, Folsom AR. Echocardiographic predictors of sudden cardiac death: The Atherosclerosis Risk in communities study and cardiovascular Health study. Circ Cardiovasc imaging. 9(8).115.004431. PMID:27496550.

• Koene RJ, Prizment AE, Blaes A, Konety SH. Shared Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Diseases and Cancer. Circulation. 133(11):1104-1114> PMID: 26976915.

Research projects available through Dr. Konety include the following:

• Cardio-Oncology Research Database (CORD) and Biorepository Substudy

• Epidemiology studies: Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study (ARIC) and Multi-Ethnic study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)

• Center for Healthy African American Men through Partnerships (CHAAMPS)