Thesis Defence: Quantifying Diaphragm Blood Flow with Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Healthy Humans: Feasibility, Validity, and Reliability

Jordan Bird, supervised by Dr. Glen Foster, will defend their thesis titled “Quantifying Diaphragm Blood Flow with Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in Healthy Humans: Feasibility, Validity, and Reliability” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Health & Exercise Sciences.

An abstract for Jordan Bird’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in person defences.

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ABSTRACT

The current state of knowledge for diaphragm blood flow is almost exclusively informed by work in animals with almost all methods being highly invasive and not conducive to routine use in humans. This poses two issues for translation to human understanding as 1) there are inconsistencies in function and structure that preclude direct comparison between species and 2) highly invasive measurements in humans can put subjects unnecessarily at risk. This gap in understanding warrants a reliable method of assessing diaphragm blood flow in humans. In our study, we tested whether we could obtain minimally invasive and reproducible measurements of diaphragm blood flow in humans. We showed that it is feasible, valid, and reliable to measure diaphragm blood flow across a range of respiratory efforts in humans. We highlight the associated limitations of the technique and future applications for basic science (e.g., exercise) and clinical medicine (e.g., patients on mechanical ventilation).