Koen Reesink

My research and education focus is on cardiovascular structure and function.

Specific topics include arterial wall biomechanics and adaptation, and ventricular-vascular interaction.

My approach is to merge the disciplines and tools of engineering and clinical sciences to develop improved assessment methods to better understand degenerative and adaptive processes.

Research Topics:

• Non-invasive assessment of dynamic vascular properties in diabetes.
• Ventricular-vascular interaction in hypertension and diastolic heart failure.
• Integrated methods to characterize vascular structure-function relationships.

Examples of future graduate student projects:

A processing pipeline to estimate the force-length relation of a fiber network - effect of structural damage

Consitutive model extension to account for smooth muscle tone - how to modulate vessel stiffness?

Establishing the reliability of axial stretch setting in biaxial mechanical testing of mouse arteries - how precise do we need to be?

Effect of the cold pressor test on carotid artery distensibility - can we learn more from modulated vessel stiffness?

Extraction of cardiac timing intervals from carotid distension waveforms - a window on the heart

Changes in left ventricular relaxation due to an acute decrease in arterial compliance - data from pigs