Scholars@Duke
Joseph Buckley Lerman

Joseph Buckley Lerman

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Cardiology
joseph.lerman@duke.edu
300 W. Morgan Street, Durham, NC 27701

Selected Publications

Developing therapeutics for rare cardiovascular diseases.

Journal Article Am Heart J · February 2026 Rare cardiovascular diseases, while individually uncommon, collectively affect millions of people worldwide and are associated with significant morbidity, mortality, and economic burden. Despite this considerable impact, most rare cardiovascular diseases l ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device infection on outcomes following heart transplant.

Journal Article J Heart Lung Transplant · November 13, 2025 BACKGROUND: Infectious complications are common in patients implanted with HeartMate 3 (HM3) left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). Despite these issues, some patients with LVAD-specific infection are ultimately considered for heart transplant (HT). The i ... Full text Link to item Cite

A call to action: Physician grief and the importance of affective debriefing in the intensive care unit.

Journal Article Am Heart J · November 2025 Affective debriefs in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) are defined as protected time and space for physicians to routinely discuss the emotions surrounding difficult cases, normalize grief, and acknowledge the work that affects physicians most. We highlight t ... Full text Link to item Cite

Primary Graft Dysfunction in Patients Supported With Durable Left Ventricular Assist Devices Before Heart Transplantation.

Journal Article JACC Heart Fail · November 2025 BACKGROUND: Previous single-center studies identified an association between pretransplant durable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support and severe primary graft dysfunction (PGD) following heart transplantation (HT). OBJECTIVES: The current study ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ensuring access to novel donor heart preservation modalities.

Journal Article J Heart Lung Transplant · September 2025 Despite improvements in managing earlier stage heart disease, the population of patients needing heart transplants continues to increase in the United States. Fortunately, novel methods of procuring and preserving donor hearts, including the use of ex-vivo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Out-of-Sequence Donor Heart Allocation: A United Network for Organ Sharing Registry Analysis.

Journal Article J Card Fail · August 7, 2025 BACKGROUND: Out-of-sequence (OOS) allocation is a mechanism by which donor organs are offered outside the standard match run, typically to expedite the placement of hard-to-match or time-sensitive allografts. Rising OOS rates are described in abdominal org ... Full text Link to item Cite

Regional differences in primary graft dysfunction: A report from the international consortium on PGD.

Journal Article J Heart Lung Transplant · July 2025 BACKGROUND: The impact of regional differences on primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after heart transplantation (HT) has not been assessed. This study aims to compare differences in the incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of severe PGD in the US, Canada, a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sacubitril/valsartan and cardiovascular biomarkers among patients with recent COVID-19 infection: The PARACOR-19 randomized clinical trial.

Journal Article Eur J Heart Fail · June 2024 AIMS: The PARACOR-19 randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to examine the effects of sacubitril/valsartan on markers of cardiac injury, inflammation, structure, and function among patients who have recovered from acute coronavirus disease 2019 (CO ... Full text Link to item Cite

Early Outcomes in Patients With LVAD Undergoing Heart Transplant via Use of the SherpaPak Cardiac Transport System.

Journal Article Circ Heart Fail · May 2024 BACKGROUND: Heart transplant (HT) in recipients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) is associated with poor early post-HT outcomes, including primary graft dysfunction (PGD). As complicated heart explants in recipients with LVADs may produce longe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Donor Heart Recovery and Preservation Modalities in 2024.

Journal Article JACC Heart Fail · March 2024 Historically, heart transplantation (HT) has relied on the use of traditional cold storage for donor heart preservation. This organ preservation modality has several limitations, including the risk for ischemic and cold-induced graft injuries that may cont ... Full text Link to item Cite

Multicenter study of universal prophylaxis versus pre-emptive therapy for patients at intermediate risk (R+) for CMV following heart transplantation.

Journal Article Clin Transplant · October 2023 INTRODUCTION: Heart transplant (HT) recipients with prior exposure to cytomegalovirus (CMV R+) are considered intermediate risk for CMV-related complications. Consensus guidelines allow for either universal prophylaxis (UP) or preemptive therapy (PET) (ser ... Full text Link to item Cite

In HF with iron deficiency, IV ferric derisomaltose was associated with lower rates of HF hospitalization or CV death.

Journal Article Ann Intern Med · April 2023 Kalra PR, Cleland JG, Petrie MC, et al. Intravenous ferric derisomaltose in patients with heart failure and iron deficiency in the UK (IRONMAN): an investigator-initiated, prospective, randomised, open-label, blinded-endpoint trial. Lancet. 2022;400:2199-2 ... Full text Link to item Cite

Plasma metabolites associated with functional and clinical outcomes in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with and without type 2 diabetes.

Journal Article Sci Rep · June 2, 2022 Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is increasingly treated with medications for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Whether metabolic derangements in HFrEF and T2DM are associated with differential outcomes remains unclear. Therefore, unders ... Full text Link to item Cite

Plasma Volume Status and Its Association With In-Hospital and Postdischarge Outcomes in Decompensated Heart Failure.

Journal Article J Card Fail · March 2021 BACKGROUND: Prior analyses suggest an association between formula-based plasma volume (PV) estimates and outcomes in heart failure (HF). We assessed the association between estimated PV status by the Duarte-ePV and Kaplan Hakim (KH-ePVS) formulas, and in-h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Outcomes of patients hospitalized for acute pulmonary embolism by obstructive sleep apnea status.

Journal Article Pulm Circ · 2021 Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is increasingly recognized in the aging population, especially with the rising obesity epidemic. The impact of OSA on inpatient mortality in P ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Between Soluble Lectinlike Oxidized Low-Density Lipoprotein Receptor-1 and Coronary Artery Disease in Psoriasis.

Journal Article JAMA Dermatol · February 1, 2020 IMPORTANCE: Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease associated with accelerated noncalcified coronary burden (NCB) by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), accelerates lipoprotein oxidation in the form of oxidized modified lipoproteins. A ... Full text Link to item Cite

Chronic Stress-Related Neural Activity Associates With Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Psoriasis: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article JACC Cardiovasc Imaging · February 2020 OBJECTIVES: This study hypothesized that there is an association between chronic stress (as indexed by resting amygdalar activity [AmygA]), hematopoietic system activity (HMPA), and subclinical cardiovascular indexes (aortic vascular inflammation [VI] and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sex-Based Differences in Left Ventricular Assist Device Utilization: Insights From the Nationwide Inpatient Sample 2004 to 2016.

Journal Article Circ Heart Fail · September 2019 BACKGROUND: Women comprise approximately one-third of the advanced heart failure population but may receive fewer advanced heart failure therapies including left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). During the early pulsatile-flow device era, women had high ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association of lipoprotein subfractions and glycoprotein acetylation with coronary plaque burden in SLE.

Journal Article Lupus Sci Med · 2019 OBJECTIVE: Subjects with SLE display an enhanced risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) that is not explained by Framingham risk. This study sought to investigate the utility of nuclear MR (NMR) spectroscopy measurements of serum lipoprotein ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Between Aortic Vascular Inflammation and Coronary Artery Plaque Characteristics in Psoriasis.

Journal Article JAMA Cardiol · October 1, 2018 IMPORTANCE: Inflammation is critical to atherosclerosis. Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease associated with early cardiovascular events and increased aortic vascular inflammation (VI), provides a model to study the process of early atherogenesis. Fl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract 589: Amygdala Activity Assessed by 18-FDG PET/CT Associates with Coronary Plaque Burden Quantified by Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography in Psoriasis

Conference Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology · May 2018 Introduction: Psoriasis (PSO), a chronic inflammatory disease associated with increased prevalence of both stress and coronary artery disease, provides a model to study the role of perceived stress in ... Full text Cite

Neutrophil subsets and their gene signature associate with vascular inflammation and coronary atherosclerosis in lupus.

Journal Article JCI Insight · April 19, 2018 BACKGROUND: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is associated with enhanced risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease not explained by Framingham risk score (FRS). Immune dysregulation associated to a distinct subset of lupus proinflammatory neutrophil ... Full text Link to item Cite

The relationship between duration of psoriasis, vascular inflammation, and cardiovascular events.

Journal Article J Am Acad Dermatol · October 2017 BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is associated with risk of cardiovascular (CV) disease (CVD) and a major adverse CV event (MACE). Whether psoriasis duration affects risk of vascular inflammation and MACEs has not been well characterized. OBJECTIVES: We utilized two ... Full text Link to item Cite

Association Between Skin and Aortic Vascular Inflammation in Patients With Psoriasis: A Case-Cohort Study Using Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography.

Journal Article JAMA Cardiol · September 1, 2017 IMPORTANCE: Inflammation is critical in the development of atherosclerosis. Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that is associated with increased vascular inflammation by 18fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Coronary Plaque Characterization in Psoriasis Reveals High-Risk Features That Improve After Treatment in a Prospective Observational Study.

Journal Article Circulation · July 18, 2017 BACKGROUND: Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory disease associated with an accelerated risk of myocardial infarction, provides an ideal human model to study inflammatory atherogenesis in vivo. We hypothesized that the increased cardiovascular risk observed i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Body Weights in Adults With Congenital Heart Disease and the Obesity Frequency.

Journal Article Am J Cardiol · February 15, 2017 Obesity may associate with greater cardiovascular risk in adults with congenital heart disease (ACHD) than in the general population. As ACHD often have exercise limitations, they may be uniquely predisposed to obesity. Nevertheless, obesity prevalence in ... Full text Link to item Cite

GlycA Is a Novel Biomarker of Inflammation and Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Psoriasis.

Journal Article Circ Res · November 11, 2016 RATIONALE: GlycA, an emerging inflammatory biomarker, predicted cardiovascular events in population-based studies. Psoriasis, an inflammatory disease associated with increased cardiovascular risk, provides a model to study inflammatory biomarkers in cardio ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-reported depression in psoriasis is associated with subclinical vascular diseases.

Journal Article Atherosclerosis · August 2016 BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disorder associated with vascular inflammation, measured by 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18-FDG PET/CT), and an increased risk of myocardial infarction. Pat ... Full text Link to item Cite