Dr Rohit Ramchandra
PhD (Auckland)
Research Officer
Systems Neurophysiology Group
Clive May Laboratory
Contact Details
Email: | |
Phone: | +61 (0)3 8344 0063 |
Research Interests
- Cardiovascular Neuroscience
- Autonomic control of circulation
- Alterations in cardiovascular physiology during disease states like heart failure
Current Projects
Heart failure is a major public health problem in all Western countries. In addition to the human cost in terms of morbidity and mortality, it has a huge economic cost, estimated to be $1 billion in Australia in 2000. Disturbingly, heart failure is the only cardiovascular disease in which the incidence and prevalence is not decreasing. Despite significant therapeutic advances, morbidity and mortality in heart failure remain unacceptably high.
While the role of the heart as an inefficient pump has been the focus of much research, the role of the brain in the pathogenesis of heart disease has not received the same amount of attention. I am interested in the mechanisms controlling sympathetic nerve activity to cardiovascular organs. Sympathetic nerve activity represents the signals sent from the brain to organs such as the heart and the kidney, and these signals control organ function, such as how hard and fast the heart beats. Importantly, patients with heart failure show a large increase in the activity of the nerves to the heart and the kidney, and this increased activity is detrimental and associated with poor prognosis in these patients. The difficulty of measuring this activity directly, especially to the heart, has meant that the factors causing this increase in activity remain poorly understood. The goal of this project is to determine what are the messages to the brain, and what changes occur in the brain that cause this increase in cardiac sympathetic nerve activity in heart failure.
Laboratory Techniques
- Electrphysiological monitoring of cardiovascular variables including arterial pressure and sympathetic nerve activity
- Surgery to implant renal, lumbar and cardiac electrodes
- Stereotaxic surgery to microinject drugs into specific brain nuclei
- Histology of the brain and kidney
- Ventricular pacing
- Echocardiography
- Autoradiography to determine receptor densities in disease states
Projects for prospective Honours and PhD students
PhD and Honours projects are available to study the contribution of hypothalamic and medullary brain regions in mediating the sympathoexcitation to the heart and kidneys during heart failure. The project will involve determining the regions of the brain that are involved in mediating the sympathoexcitation to the heart during HF, and determination of the neurotransmitters/neuromodulators involved. It will be an interesting mix of neurobiology with cardiovascular physiology and has important clinical implications in view of the detrimental effect of sympathetic activation in heart failure.
Techniques will include:
- whole animal integrative physiology
- long-term recordings of blood pressure and blood flow to different organs
- stereotaxic surgery
- microinjection to stimulate or inhibit brain nuclei that modulate cardiovascular function
- neuroanatomy
- immunohistochemistry
- receptor autoradiography
- molecular biology
- PCR of micro-dissected brain nuclei
Funding
- National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)
- National Heart Foundation (Australia)
- The CASS (Contributing to Australian Scholarship and Science) Foundation
Publications and Articles
Pubmed link for Ramchandra, R
About
Addiction
Harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption is estimated to have caused 3,290 deaths in Australia in 1997, as well as 72,302 hospitalisations.