Kinesiology Assistant Professor Michael Nelson's Applied Physiology and Advanced Imaging (APAI) Laboratory is focused on questions related to human health and cardiovascular disease, especially cardiac physiology and vascular regulation. Located in the new Science & Engineering Innovation & Research building, the lab's current projects include studies of diastolic function in women with coronary microvascular disease, ectopic fat deposition in cardiomyocytes as a mechanism for cardiac dysfunction, and cardiac function and skeletal muscle blood flow regulation in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
1
The ultrasound machine can take detailed pictures of the heart, like the one shown on the screen.
2
Doctoral student T. Jake Samuel performs an echocardiogram on the patient's heart to see how it is beating and pumping blood.
3
The device on the patient's wrist and index finger is measuring beat-by-beat arterial blood pressure.
4
Ryan Rosenberry, a doctoral student in Dr. Nelson's lab, performs an ultrasound on the patient's brachial artery, the large artery in the upper arm, to assess vascular health and function. Master's student Sauyeh Zamani assists.
5
This data acquisition platform is complete with an analog-to-digital acquisition system and associated software, bioamps, Doppler audio transformer, and near-infrared spectrometer. Together, this multimodality approach provides a comprehensive assessment of cardiovascular function.
6
(Not shown in this photo) The APAI lab also uses magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy to study cardiac function and metabolism in patients with ischemic heart disease and heart failure.
