During the very successful 3rd meeting of our young research network, CARnet between May 24th to 27th this year participants have called for collaborative projects translating the knowledge and methods of cerebral autoregulation research into clinical applications.

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Already 20 years have passed since methods for analyses of dynamic components of cerebral blood flow autoregulation were established. Despite obvious advantages in disease monitoring and patient care, most hospitals would not have tools available for the testing of dynamic cerebral autoregulation. CARnet members at the 3rd meeting of the ESNCH conference in Porto presented a broad spectrum of clinical and scientific applications for cerebral autoregulation testing and got an overwhelmingly positive feedback of the participants including from members of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (ESNCH). The CARnet meeting has shown that multiple conditions, reaching from stroke to neurotrauma, and neurodegenerative diseases may have impact on cerebral autoregulation. CARnet members hold expertise of linear as well as non-linear methods which can be used to capture trends during monitoring of spontaneous autoregulation as well as to quantify fast stimulus-related dynamics of cerebral autoregulation. Several parameters are ready and due to be tested prospectively. We feel that it is time now to gather in search for high standards in methods and for clinical applications which significantly improve patient care and life quality. Due to its multi-disciplinary structure and its web-based information exchange CARnet may serve as a unique catalyst for collaborative projects.
 

The network itself can provide support at each level of grant preparation and holds:

1. Clinical, physiological, and methodological expertise in the field of cerebral hemodynamics and autoregulation,

2. Contacts with technological and software companies with interest in innovations and new applications in the field of cerebral hemodynamics,

3. Experience with clinical and scientific research including grant applications writing, calculating the volume of funding, plausibility checks, statistics and power estimation, research regulations in European and non-European countries.
    

Please let us know whether you would like to link-up with CARnet members in an interest group in one of the following fields of interest:

1. Traumatic brain injury.

2. Aging and neurodegenerative disease.

3. Stroke and stroke risk factors.

4. Pregnancy, eclampsia and neonatology.

5. T-CARnet – a project for improving and standardising the techniques of dynamic autoregulation analysis.

6. Biology and Physiology of cerebral blood flow regulation.
    

Please consider this call as a first step towards translational research projects and take the lead in extending this selection of research topics by the one you would wish to join.

We are more than happy to invite CARnet members to contribute to one or more of the above named interest groups or to leverage their abilities by coordinating a collaborative research project, which will be much appreciated within our scientific community. Thank you!

Please just send an email to my address: chaubrichukaachen.de. An easy way in order to link up, to discuss project ideas, or to share papers would be www.researchgate.net about which I will be happy to inform you in detail.