My research has been focused on brain blood flow regulation in humans, especially in patients with hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The main findings are that under dynamic conditions, brain blood flow regulation in response to changes in pressure is a frequency dependent phenomenon. We have demonstrated for the first time that dynamic pressure-flow relationship of the cerebral circulation is modulated by autonomic neural activity. My research in hypertension has shown that brain blood flow and its dynamic regulation remain unchanged despite acute reduction in blood pressure in patients with mild to moderate hypertension and that blood pressure instability is reduced with long-term antihypertensive therapy. These findings provide directly evidence in support of an aggressive and acute treatment of patients with high blood pressure. My research in Alzheimer′s disease suggests that cerebrovascular function is impaired with aging and that these abnormalities are exacerbated in patients with AD.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Cerebral blood flow and metabolism
Cerebrovascular function in Alzheimer′s disease and hypertension
Brain imaging and neuronal-vascular coupling
Autonomic control of cardiovascular system
Biomedical signal processing
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Cui J, Zhang R, Wilson TE, Witkowski S, Crandall CG, Levine BD, "Nitric oxide synthase inhibition does not affect regulation of muscle sympathetic nerve activity during head-up tilt" Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 285:H2105-2110, 2003
Iwasaki K, Zhang R, Zuckerman JH, Morrow MJ, Levine BD, "Does-response relationship of the cardiovascular adaption to endurance training" J Appl Physiol, 95:1575-1583, 2003
Shi X, Huang G, Smith SA, Zhang R, Formes KJ, "Aging and arterial blood pressure variability during orthostatic challenge" Gerontology, 49:279-286, 2003
Cooke WH, Zhang R, Zuckerman JH, Cui J, Wilson TE, Crandall CG, Levine BD, "Does nitric oxide buffer arterial pressure variability in humans" J Appl Physiol, 93:1466-1470, 2002
Fu Q, Levine BD, Pawelczyk JA, Ertl AC, Diedrich A, Cox JF, Zuckerman JH, Ray CA, ;Smith ML, Iwase S, Saito M, Sugiyama Y, Mano T, Zhang R, et. al., "Cardiovascular and sympathetic neural responses to handgrip and cold pressor stimuli in humans before, during and after spaceflight" J Physiology, 544.2:653-664, 2002
SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS
Wilson TE, Cui J, Zhang R, Witkowski S, Crandall CG, "Skin cooling maintains cerebral blood flow velocity and orthostatic tolerance during tilting in humans" J Appl Physiology, 93:85-91, 2002
Mitsis GD, Zhang R, Levine BD, Marmarelis VZ, "Modeling of Nonlinear Physiological Systems with Fast and Slow Dynamics - Part II: Application to Cerebral Autoregulation" Annuals of Biomedical Engineering, 30:555-565, 2002
Levine BD, Pawelczyk JA, Ertl AC, Cox JF, Zuckerman JH, Diedrich A, Biaggioni I, Ray CA, Smith ML, Iwase S, Saito M, Sugiyama Y, Mano T, Zhang R, et. al., "Human muscle sympathetic neural and haemodynamic responses to tilt following spaceflight" J Physiology, 538:331-340, 2002
Zhang R, Zuckerman JH, Iwasaki K, Wilson T, Crandall CG, Levine BD, "Autonomic neural control of dynamic cerebral autoregulation in humans" Circulation, 106:1814-1820, 2002
Zhang R, Zuckerman JH, Iwasaki K, Behbehani K, Crandall CG, Levine BD, "Mechanism of blood pressure and R-R variability: insights from ganglion blockade in humans" J Physiology, 453.1:337-348, 2002
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