The Dallas Heart Study (DHS) is a multi-ethnic, population-based probability sample of Dallas County designed to define the social and the biological variables contributingto ethnic differences in cardiovascular health at the community level and to support hypothesis-driven research aimed at determining the underlying mechanisms contributing to differences in cardiovascular risk. The initial data collection from the population was performed in three sequential stages over a two year period(2000-2002) and included the collection of detailed socioeconomic, biomarker and imaging data from each participant. The underlying assumption of the study is that successful identification of new risk factors for cardiovascular disease will require the availability of an exquisitely phenotyped, multiethnic population in close proximity to the Center.