10 Dec 24. PhD Opportunity

Background

Many ostensibly clinically normal large breed athletic horses develop atrial fibrillation (AF), which leads to clinically significant health, performance, and safety (for horse riding) problems. The reason why some large breed horses develop AF and others don’t is poorly understood but believed to be due to undetermined individual atrial tissue and/or electrical characteristics, whereby longstanding atrial enlargement and/or dysfunction causes remodelling of atrial tissue microstructure. The ensuing development of tissue fibrosis and myofibre disarray causes conduction anisotropy, rendering tissue more susceptible to fibrillation.

Our multidisciplinary team of equine cardiologists, human cardiologists and MRI physicists aim to use novel imaging techniques to elucidate the relationships between structure and function in the equine athletic heart, in health and disease. This PhD will create structural data to underpin work of this group investigating the relationship between microstructure and electrical function in the equine heart. The candidate will develop techniques and analyse MRI data from stored and contemporaneously collected equine hearts, imaged ex vivo. Cardiac MRI is can provide detailed information on cardiac structure, including microstructure. Cardiac MRI is not currently feasible in live horses but ex vivo techniques have the potential to inform studies on basic cardiac microstructure and to provide insight into the tissue determinants of normal and abnormal electrophysiology. We have preliminary data using diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI), demonstrating the feasibility of this technique in large tissues, showing the fibre arrangement that underpins the mechanical function in the equine ventricles and left atrium. This imaging technique offers the opportunity to perform ‘virtual histology’, identifying areas of myofibre disarray, such as that produced by tissue fibrosis. Together with linked electrophysiology studies we aim to create a three-dimensional equine atrial model with fibre orientations and electrical propagation patterns. This has translational impact for cardiac disease in humans and other veterinary species.

Funding information and application procedures:

This 3.5 year studentship opportunity is open to UK and international students and provides funding to cover stipend, tuition fees and consumable/travel costs. 

Supervisors: Prof John Keen, Dr Lucy Kershaw, Dr Steven Williams

Application form can be downloaded via https://edin.ac/3OZOYtG

Please send your completed application form to RDSVS.Studentship.Applications@ed.ac.uk

PhD in Interdependence of structure and function: using MRI to determine the individual tissue characteristics driving atrial fibrillation in the equine heart

CLOSING: Thursday 13 February 2025