Cardiovascular & Surgical Techniques

My surgical expertise and a working knowledge of anesthesia methods can train your staff to become in vivo laboratory specialist. Their knowledge of those techniques will result in performing catheter implantations to either administer drugs (intravenous, subcutaneous, intramuscular and oral) or monitor physiological parameters, such as blood pressure and renal blood flow. Additional training can be provided to perform implantation of mini-pumps for drug administration, urinary bladder catheterization for sample collection and monitoring renal blood flow in hypertensive models. Two special techniques (1) collection of cerebrospinal fluid and (2) recording ventricular blood pressure measurements are also available from the extensive list of surgical training.

Acute Catheter Implantation:
Laboratory staff will be provided “hands-on” instructions on the proper techniques for implanting arterial and venous catheters. These catheters can be utilized for arterial pressure recording and intravenous drug administration. The appropriate surgical instruments used in the implantation and the care of those instruments will also be illustrated.

Chronic Catheter Implantation:
As projects go forward in their various stages of preclinical development, continuous physiological monitoring of blood pressure and heart rate are often very important data for the project team. My services will assist the laboratory staff write the appropriate protocols, learn aseptic surgical techniques to implant the catheters, illustrate proper post-operative care and conduct the experimental procedures to acquire the necessary data.

Special Surgical Techniques:

• Mini-Pump Implantation:
• Surgical implantation of Alza mini-pumps for long-term drug administration by intravenous or subcutaneous routes.
• Collection of Cerebrospinal Fluid:
• The surgical approach to isolating the allanto-occipital will be illustrated as a “hands-on” workshop.
• Catheter design and use of stereotaxic frame will be illustrated as well.
• Monitoring Renal Blood Flow:
• Recording Left Ventricular Pressure

Cardiovascular Models

Training to work with well-established cardiovascular models, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of novel and market drugs is an important first step in many research and drug discovery programs.

• Rodent and guinea pig models to evaluate cardiovascular effects of inhalation drugs are monitored. These models are used in asthma and/or COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) programs.
• Drug screening protocols in normal (normotensive) animals are used to evaluate the safety of drugs on the cardiovascular system. Cardiovascular parameters and behavior patterns are evaluated using these models.
• Drug evaluation in hypertensive models such as Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat (SHR) and DOCA-salt sensitive hypertension.