Email to a colleague
View Printer Friendly           Home | Other Research | 2007 Summer Fellowship Opportunity

Current Medical Student Summer Research Fellows

·	Current Medical Student Research Fellows

Timothy Suttle Preceptor: Gavin Britz, MD, MPH Institution: University of Washington Delayed cerebral vasospasm and the resulting ischemia remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Given the importance of nitric oxide (NO) in the maintenance of cerebral blood flow (CBF), there is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that both the production, as well as, the effector mechanisms of NO are adversely affected after SAH. Since small diameter arterioles play a critical role in regulating CBF, our hypothesis is that SAH alters NO-mediated cerebral arteriolar reactivity, preventing normal physiologic responses, resulting in ischemia. In this proposal, we plan to: (1) test the hypothesis that SAH results in increased PDE-5 expression in cerebral arterioles. (2) test the hypothesis that attenuated NO-mediated vasodilatation of cerebral arterioles following SAH is due to increased PDE-5 activity and (3) test the hypothesis that inhibition of PDE-5 activity improves outcome following SAH.