Vascular risk factors, subclinical atherosclerosis and stroke risk

Janine Gronewold received her diploma in psychology in 2010 at the University of Wuppertal. Her diploma thesis focused on psychophysiological responses to commercial products depending on advertisement and personality traits. In 2015 she earned her Dr. rer. nat. at the Faculty of Psychology of the Ruhr University Bochum under the mentorship of Prof. Hermann for her thesis “Prediction of incident stroke events in the population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study using subclinical atherosclerosis markers”. In 2022 she finished her PhD Epidemiology and Clinical Research at the Center of Clinical Epidemiology Essen for her thesis “Optimizing geriatric patient care via screening for risk of functional decline”. Since 2015 she works as post-doctoral scientist in the NeuroScienceLab at the Chair of Vascular Neurology, Dementia and Ageing Research, where she currently supervises research groups evaluating vascular risk factors as stroke predictors and neurodegenerative processes after strategic stroke lesions. 

Janine Gronewold is interested in pathomechanisms leading to and exacerbating secondary damage following stroke. Current projects evaluate the role of vascular risk factors and subclinical atherosclerosis markers in stroke development and neuropsychological consequences of stroke in relation to secondary neurodegeneration and brain atrophy. The group implements cutting-edge statistical methods and neuroimaging data analysis tools. 

Gronewold J, Engels M. The Lonely Brain – Associations Between Social Isolation and (Cerebro-) Vascular Disease From the Perspective of Social Neuroscience. Front Integr Neurosci. 2022;16:729621.

Gronewold J, Jokisch M, Schramm S, Jockwitz C, Miller T, Lehmann N, Moebus S, Jöckel KH, Erbel R, Caspers S, Hermann DM; Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study Investigative Group. Association of Blood Pressure, Its Treatment, and Treatment Efficacy With Volume of White Matter Hyperintensities in the Population-Based 1000BRAINS Study. Hypertension. 2021;78(5):1490-501.

Gronewold J, Hermann DM. Social isolation and risk of fatal cardiovascular events. Lancet Public Health. 2021;6(4):e197-8.

Gronewold J, Kropp R, Lehmann N, Stang A, Mahabadi AA, Weimar C, Dichgans M, Moebus S, Kröger K, Hoffmann B, Jöckel KH, Erbel R, Hermann DM; Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study Investigative Group. Population impact of different hypertension management guidelines based on the prospective population-based Heinz Nixdorf Recall study. BMJ Open. 2021;11(2):e039597.

Gronewold J, Engels M, van de Velde S, Cudjoe TKM, Duman EE, Jokisch M, Kleinschnitz C, Lauterbach K, Erbel R, Jöckel KH, Hermann DM. Effects of Life Events and Social Isolation on Stroke and Coronary Heart Disease. Stroke. 2021;52(2):735-47.

Gronewold J, Lenuck MCI, Gülderen I, Scharf AC, Penzel T, Johns MW, Frohnhofen H, Hermann DM. Developing an Alternative Version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to Assess Daytime Sleepiness in Adults with Physical or Mental Disabilities. Gerontology. 2021;67(1):49-59.

Gronewold J, Kropp R, Lehmann N, Schmidt B, Weyers S, Siegrist J, Dragano N, Jöckel KH, Erbel R, Hermann DM; Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study Investigative Group. Association of social relationships with incident cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. Heart. 2020;106(17):1317-23.

Scharf AC, Gronewold J, Dahlmann C, Schlitzer J, Kribben A, Gerken G, Frohnhofen H, Dodel R, Hermann DM. Clinical and functional patient characteristics predict medical needs in older patients at risk of functional decline. BMC Geriatr. 2020;20(1):75.

Gronewold J, Kropp R, Lehmann N, Stang A, Mahabadi AA, Kälsch H, Weimar C, Dichgans M, Budde T, Moebus S, Jöckel KH, Erbel R, Hermann DM. Cardiovascular Risk and Atherosclerosis Progression in Hypertensive Persons Treated to Blood Pressure Targets. Hypertension. 2019;74(6):1436-47.

Scharf AC, Gronewold J, Dahlmann C, Schlitzer J, Kribben A, Gerken G, Rassaf T, Kleinschnitz C, Dodel R, Frohnhofen H, Hermann DM. Health outcome of older hospitalized patients in internal medicine environments evaluated by Identification of Seniors at Risk (ISAR) screening and geriatric assessment. BMC Geriatr. 2019;19(1):221.

Bieber M, Gronewold J, Scharf AC, Schuhmann MK, Langhauser F, Hopp S, Mencl S, Geuss E, Leinweber J, Guthmann J, Doeppner TR, Kleinschnitz C, Stoll G, Kraft P, Hermann DM. Validity and Reliability of Neurological Scores in Mice Exposed to Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion. Stroke. 2019;50(10):2875-82.

Gronewold J, Todica O, Seidel UK, Volsek M, Kribben A, Bruck H, et al. Cognitive performance is highly stable over a 2-year-follow-up in chronic kidney disease patients in a dedicated medical environment. PLoS One. 2016; 11(11):e0166530. 

Gronewold J, Klafki HW, Baldelli E, Kaltwasser B, Seidel UK, Todica O, et al. Factors Responsible for Plasma β-Amyloid Accumulation in Chronic Kidney Disease. Mol Neurobiol. 2016; 53(5):3136-45. 

Hermann DM, Lehmann N, Gronewold J, Bauer M, Mahabadi AA, Weimar C, et al. Thoracic aortic calcification is associated with incident stroke in the general population in addition to established risk factors. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. 2015; 16(6):684-90.

Kara K, Gronewold J, Neumann T, Mahabadi AA, Weimar C, Lehmann N, et al. B-type natriuretic peptide predicts stroke of presumable cardioembolic origin in addition to coronary artery calcification. Eur J Neurol. 2014; 21(6):914-21. 

Seidel UK, Gronewold J, Volsek M, Todica O, Kribben A, Bruck H, et al. The prevalence, severity, and association with HbA1c and fibrinogen of cognitive impairment in chronic kidney disease. Kidney Int. 2014; 85(3):693-702. 

Gronewold J, Bauer M, Lehmann N, Mahabadi AA, Kälsch H, Weimar C, et al. Coronary artery calcification, intima-media thickness, and ankle-brachial index are complementary stroke predictors. Stroke. 2014; 45(9):2702-9.

Anne-Carina Scharf received her Master of Science in Psychology with emphasis on neuropsychology and biopsychology at the University of Wuppertal. Her master thesis focused on neuropsychological recovery and after paramedian thalamic stroke. In parallel, Anne-Carina Scharf started to study Human Medicine at the University Hospital Essen. Currently, she is a PhD/ MD student in the NeuroScienceLab funded by the Claussen-Simon-Foundation. 

Anne-Carina Scharf examines neurodegenerative changes induced by thalamic stroke, linking persistent neurological and neuropsychological deficits observed in different stroke topographies (i.e., paramedian, inferolateral and anterior thalamic stroke) with secondary neurodegenerative changes. Within her thesis, Anne-Carina Scharf develops innovative neuroimaging data analysis tools, including voxel-based morphometry and lesion-symptom mapping.