Vascular Sciences
About the Centre
The Vascular Sciences group, based at Monash University and Southern Health, brings together researchers from Southern Health’s clinical vascular research laboratories, clinical imaging and nursing research departments and Monash University’s basic biomedical research laboratories with expertise in vascular biology, proteomics, biomarkers and imaging. Our focus is on training for clinical research excellence in vascular health across the continuum from defining mechanisms, earliest detection and prediction of risk in established disease, to best preventive therapeutics and clinical care.
The Vascular Sciences group has integrated research activities with Southern Health Departments of Endocrinology & Diabetes, Cardiology, Nephrology, Nursing Research and the Jean Hailes Foundation to form a clinical vascular health research group.
The research program of our Vascular Sciences group, led by Professor Barry McGrath and Associate Professor James Cameron, is focused on early detection of atherosclerosis and measuring indices of arterial function, including flow-mediated arterial dilatation, pulse wave velocity, arterial compliance and arterial pressure augmentation (invasively and non-invasively) in at-risk groups, to examine their relationships to biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction, and to establish their clinical relevance as primary causes of, as well as markers for, vascular disease outcomes.
Another key area of research has been the five year placebo-controlled study of the effects of folate on cardiovascular endpoints, atherosclerosis progression and arterial function in patients with end-stage renal disease (the ASFAST study), involving 320 subjects in five centres in Australia and New Zealand. This study has also allowed a comprehensive evaluation of the utility of arterial function measures as outcome predictors.
We have recently been addressing the much overlooked venous component of vascular disease by examining venous incompetence, developing strategies for predicting clinical disease and guidelines for its management.
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