Continuing Education Opportunities - Rodent Cardiac Function and Hemodynamic Measurements and Microsurgery Training Courses

Development of new skills is of upmost importance in cardiovascular research. Training programs lead by your peers in cardiovascular research are available to help develop and hone your microsurgery skills or to learn advanced applications and measurements of hemodynamics and cardiovascular function in rodent models. Both courses offer an instructional component during which various topics relevant to cardiovascular research are discussed, along with significant time for hands on practice of the relevant techniques. There are two relevant courses that may be of interest to you or a colleague:

• Rodent Microsurgery and Hemodynamic Measurements Training Program lead by Dr. Timothy Hacker from the University of Wisconsin – Madison
• Non-Invasive Assessment of Cardiac Function in Rodents Using Doppler Flow Velocity lead by Dr. Anil Reddy from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas

  The learning objectives of the microsurgery and hemodynamics course include:

• foundations in rodent surgery
• sedation, intubation, vital signs monitoring and vessel isolation for blood pressure catheterization
• open and closed-chest surgical approach for accessing the left, or right, ventricle
• introduction to Pressure-Volume Loop measurements
• survival procedures, including myocardial infarction and aortic banding models (others upon request)
• how to record and analyze load independent measurements of function
• proper statistical analysis of hemodynamic data and how to present data for publication

The learning objectives for the assessment of cardiac function using Doppler course include:

• Fundamentals of physiological and ultrasound measurements in preclinical cardiovascular disease
• Key ultrasound principles – pulsed Doppler concept- range/depth/angle, signals, sampling/processing, aliasing, frequency
• Understanding the differences between blood flow & blood flow velocity
• Cardiovascular anatomy: cardiac sites & vascular sites
• Cardiac, coronary and vascular function:  measuring blood flow velocity in rodents (mice) to determine systolic & diastolic function, coronary flow reserve, and pulse wave velocity to estimate aortic stiffness, respectively
• Measurement procedures, signal qualification, data analysis and interpretation

For more information on or to register for the “Rodent Microsurgery and Hemodynamic Measurements Training Program” offered at the University of Wisconsin – Madison please visit: https://insidescientific.com/workshop/rodent-microsurgery-hemodynamic-measurements-training-program/. Upcoming courses in September and December 2018. For more information on or to register for the “Non-Invasive Assessment of Cardiac Function in Rodents Using Doppler Flow Velocity” offered at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas please visit: https://insidescientific.com/workshop/non-invasive-cardiac-function-rodents-doppler-flow-velocity-indus-instruments/. Upcoming courses in September and December 2018.