Leonelo Bautista

I am interested in the identification of factors that influence the risk of developing arterial hypertension and barriers for hypertension control. Early in my career, I conducted epidemiologic studies that led to the recognition of chronic inflammation as a risk factor for the development of hypertension. I have also conducted studies on the role of folates, homocysteine, and genetic polymorphisms on the risk of stroke. I am currently the leader and PI of the consortium of Latin American Studies of Obesity (LASO), which includes data on more than 30,000 adults from 11 Latin American countries. I have recently shown that that high hair cortisol independently increases the risk of hypertension and I am PI of a study of the role of stress in the development of cardiometabolic risk factors among adults from the Dominican Republic. Due to the significantly heightened risk of cardiovascular disease amongst individuals with diabetes and pre-diabetes, my research program is extremely relevant to the unmet need of reducing cardiovascular burden in this population.