The Cardiovascular Physiology and Surgery Core

Overview of Services

The Cardiovascular Physiology and Surgery Core is available to provide the Johns Hopkins community and beyond three types of cardiovascular procedures on small animals, including, but not limited to, mouse and rat: echocardiography, survival surgery, and hemodynamics. Other procedures may be possible after discussion with the core surgeons. Within each of these three areas, there are several different specific techniques and procedures that will be offered. Echocardiography: Functional assessment of the heart and major blood vessels is provided by this service. Images are generated using a Visual-Sonics 2100 imaging system.  A newer Vevo F2 with 4D imaging is anticipated to be included in the core by mid 2024. Both have tissue Doppler capabilities, including speckle tracking for regional strain analysis. Functional imaging is also available to assess aortic diameter and wall thickening, flow in the aorta to assess vascular stiffening (pulse wave velocity, velocity time integral used to determine cardiac output, etc.). The newer 4D imaging can provide 3D x time full cardiac reconstruction and so volumes, strains, systolic and diastolic dysfunction, and other features without having to make geometric assumptions. Survival Surgery: We provide a variety of surgically generated heart disease models for use in mice or rats. This includes aortic or pulmonary artery banding for pressure-overload, myocardial infarction or ischemia-reperfusion models applied to coronary arteries on the left ventricle, osmotic pump implantation for delivery of pharmaceuticals, intramyocardial injections of gene-transfer vectors (e.g. AAVs, the vectors must be approved and provided by the investigator), and intravenous or retroorbital intravenous injection. We also provide advanced pressure-volume loop analysis of right or left heart function using a miniature conductance catheter. This provides measures of intraventricular pressures, systolic and diastolic function, contraction and relaxation kinetics, contractility assessment, and many other indexes. These studies are not designed to be survival surgeries.  Surgeries are principally performed by Dr. Erhe Gao, a Professor at Temple University who comes to Hopkins several times each month to perform these procedures. He is able to do many of the procedures in a fairly short period of time, optimizing the efficiency of the Core’s service.

Leadership

David Kass, Professor Program Chairman
410-955-7153
dkass@jhmi.edu

Nadan Wang, Lab Manager/Director
410-502-2044
nwang31@jhmi.edu

Michelle "Missy" Leppo, Surgical Technician
410-955-3814
mleppo@jhmi.edu

Erhe Gao, Surgeon

erhe.gao@temple.edu

Location and hours of operation

Links and Resources

1. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/profiles/results/directory/profile/0000740/david-kass
2. http://kasslab.johnshopkins.edu/

Contacts