The purpose of this course is to provide the participants with knowledge of advantages and pitfalls of methods within integrative human cardiovascular studies. Both lectures and participant hands-on experience during practical sessions will be part of the course.

Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:

1. Knowledge: Detailed physiological knowledge on regulatory mechanisms for the cardiovascular system in addition to pathophysiology. The student is expected to gain insight into special methods of relevance within the field – ranging from evaluation with imaging, Doppler and tracer techniques to sampling of tissue or blood, assessment of neural activity. Knowledge on common intervention techniques e.g., manipulation with blood volume, vasodilation, neural blocking, baroreceptors etc.

2. Skills: The student will get hands on experience with some of the available techniques (Doppler flow, echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging of the heart, determination of cardiac output and blood volume, evaluation of arterial baroreceptor function), experiments on animals and work with study design. Oral presentation of project etc.

3. Competences: The student will be able to integrate knowledge from the different disciplines (methods and areas of interest) – evaluate strength/weaknesses of measures/study design and provide realistic perspectives on own findings

Participants
PhD students working with cardiovascular physiology/pathophysiology – i.e. medical, human biology, human physiology or animal biology.