Request for Funding
Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2011

All descriptions must contain enough detail to permit an assessment of the problem that is to be addressed and the methodologies that are to be employed. Please be careful to outline the role that the student will play in the project that is described. Please ensure that all relevant approval numbers (IRB, IACUC) are provided.

Mentor:                       Benjamin D. Levine, MD               
Department:              IMC-Cardiology
Room number:         7232 Greenville Avenue, Suite 435, Dallas, TX  75235-5129
Mail Code:                 IEEM
Phone number:        214-345-6459
E-mail:                       BenjaminLevine@TexasHealth.org        
Project title:               Acute Mountain Sickness

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Pending
Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):  Not Applicable

Project Type:             Patient-Based

Brief Description of Project:
Since the first modern descriptions of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) were published, scientists have sought to predict who would get AMS and who would remain well.  Early investigations revealed that an individual’s experience on repeat exposures was reproducible about 70% of the time, which to date is the most practical and accurate assessment of individual AMS risk. In short, statistical, epidemiological and physiological methodologies have fallen short in predicting AMS susceptibility in altitude naïve subjects. We propose to refine our model, which, based on pre-ascent blood tests, predicts with 96% accuracy who will develop AMS following a 10 hour exposure to 16,000 feet in an altitude chamber.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Jessica Brian – 2010 Summer Research Program
Project Name:  Cardiac Atrophy and Diastolic Dysfunction during and after Long Duration Spaceflight: Functional Consequences for Orthostatic Intolerance, Exercise Capacity, and Risk of Cardiac Arrhythmias: The “Integrated CardioVascular (ICV)” Experiment E377; IRB# 082008-058.

Shayla Derousseau - 2009 Summer Research Program, Project Name:  “Living High-Training Low” Model of Altitude Training; IRB# 082007-011.

David Liang- 2009 Summer Research Program, Project Name:  The Effect of Exercise and Alagebrium on the Diastolic Function of the Heart; IRB# 032208-012.

(This is a partial list.)