Elena Conti

Graduated in medicine-1994. Specialized in Cardiology-1998. PhD in Molecular and Cellular cardiology-2003, working on the subject of IGF-1 and myocardial infarction. European Accreditation in Intensive Cardiac Care-Paris-October 2008. Master’s degree in Clinical Competence in Cardiac Intensive Care-Florence University-2010. Thereafter research less than part-time, jointly with ward duties, into acute coronary syndromes and growth factors in vascular disease biology. Works and investigates in the field of diabetes, atherothrombosis, acute coronary syndromes, national and international surveys, such as- EYESHOT investigation. Focus in research-2010: role of growth factor deficiency in atherothrombosis and hypertensive disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or cancer with eye disease in patients treated with targeted drugs. Projects proposed to French industries, such as Ipsen-2011. Recent interest in Sars-Cov2-related manifestations, & related thrombotic or hypertensive risk. More work dedicated to the dramatic eminent infestation multiplier of Sars-CoV-2 affection, cysticercosis by Taenia larvae, known to medicine since decades, and outblown in two peaks in the recent fifty years, due to HIV first and Sars-CoV-2 epidemics-pandemics thereafter.

Currently job moving, due to personal and familiar health issues, now improving for what attains her health and that of her direct family, after a 30 year-long Cardiology career, following a Cardiology specialty degree (1998), and atop a Cardiology PhD in June 2003 in Cellular and Molecular Cardiology on the subject of IGF-1 in Myocardial Infarction and Cardiac Diseases, later researched on IGF-1 and Cardiometabolic diseases, for a cumulated period of less than 3 full-time years, across the time elapsed from PhD gathering until now. Beside, and principally, she gained a steady clinical foundation at Cardiology Specialty and then across around 30 years, as an assistant cardiologist, and since 2003 at the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Science and Cellular and Molecular Medicine Departments, Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Chairs of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome up to August 2024, when she got a work leave and than a break due, - (beyond an after Covid-19- and after-cysticercosis generated multiple familiar significant health and health-related problems)–  to a personal bad polytrauma with severe long-lasting complications now improving-.

She devoted herself to funding and promoting the local Intensive Cardiac Care Unit since 2004, and kept on managing this activity until April 2016. Concurrently-accordingly, she was committed to Emergency Cardiology teaching at Cardiology Specialization, while working at the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit and Cardiology Unit, where she trained and perfected her proficiency, also applied to Emergency and Acceptance Department. She also collaborated on a National application for funding and study enrollment into Multicentric, placebo-controlled, dose-response trial awarded a national MIUR- PRIN grant, and led Primary and Secondary Cardiovascular Prevention programs at the Outpatient Cardiovascular Care Unit since April 2016. Here, she also delved into deepening knowledge on insulin resistance, diabetes, and hypertension, representing the main multiplicative risk burden determining the onset of atherothrombotic vulnerable blood and patient, and the evolution towards thrombotic and arrhythmic early, medium, and late complications.

She raised an international and intercontinental collaboration, lasting for more than 12 years, since 2010, with an outstanding South African hypertension researcher, Alta Schutte, now relocated to Australia. This partnership gave rise to several published papers on IGF-1 linking the hypertension and dysmetabolism topics, in the wake of her previous research interests. A collaboration project was signed between Italy and South Africa, and their respective Sapienza and North-West Potchefstroom Universities. The project was a branch of the global PURE study, importantly investigating insulin resistance, and thereby letting a scientific-technological cooperation begin, with an allotted grant reserved, aiming at evaluating IGF-1 axis assessment in a large (over 2000 patients) high cardiovascular risk primary prevention population study.

More recent interest in cardiovascular reverberations of SARS-CoV-2 and coinfectants has generated several insights, perspectives, and review papers, under evaluation at several high-impact Scientific Journals.