**6. Ongoing Studies**

Current efforts to improve diagnostics of FMD aim to identify screening methods that would have a high sensitivity and specificity for FMD, and be easy to use, cost-effective, and available in the clinical practice. Preliminary analysis of the very high-Frequency Ultrasonography for arterial phenotyping in patients with Cervico-cerebral artery dissection, Hypertension, Spontaneous coronary artery dissection and fibromuscular dysplasIA (FUCHSIA) study showed an eutrophic remodelling of the radial artery wall in 11 hypertensive female FMD patients with a peculiar "blurred" pattern [41]. Similar images have also been identified in 5 female SCAD patients [55]. New information is also expected from the Pathophysiological Mechanisms of Fibromuscular Dysplasia (MeDyA) study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01935752), a pathophysiology study designed to assess endothelial function in patients with FMD compared to hypertensive and healthy controls, and to identify possible plasmatic biomarkers (circulating microparticles, circulating microRNAs, endothelial proteins), and vascular echo-tracking abnormalities related to the FMD.

From a genetic and pathophysiologic point of view, the Defining the Basis of Fibromuscular Dysplasia (DEFINE) study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01967511) is in the process of recruitment. The researcher's aim is to establish functional, molecular and genetic profiles of fibroblasts from FMD, SCAD and CeAD patients as compared to matched control subjects, in order to dissect the core biologic mechanisms underlying these disorders. Such data should allow to identify similarities and differences in pathophysiology, which could help stratify patients by using biological markers.
