Tropopoiitiko Fek

Visiting Professors


INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATION WITH FOREIGN ACCLAIMED SCIENTISTS


The aim of the THORAX Foundation is the education and retraining of the scientists, contributes substantially to the production of new knowledge and the advancement of science. It is very important for the Foundation to cooperate with foreign universities such as John Hopkins, McGill, Imperial, Cambridge, Harward etc.  For this purpose from 1997 until today invited prominent academics worldwide recognized, who gave lectures at scientific conferences organized by the Foundation, taught doctoral students and guided their research so the publications of studies to be awarded by the Greek and international scientific community. Also involved in the planning process of preparation of research protocols and participated in the writing of scientific publications in prestigious medical journals.

Professor Joseph Milic-Emily from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who visited Thorax Foundation more than 15 times from 1997 until today, collaborated in the design of studies in the scientific field of pathophysiology of respiration, analysis of results and writing of scientific articles.

Professor Peter Macklem of McGill University in Montreal, Canada Foundation who visited the Foundation five times, planned and participated actively in the same experiments and studies on the subject of mechanical ventilation.

One of the most important international collaborations is that one with Professor Peter Wagner of the University of San Diego, California, USA.  Peter Wagner served as president of the American Society Thorakologikis (2005-2006) and the American Physiological Society. Since 2010 he is editor of the scientific Journal of Applied Physiology.

Working with Peter Wagner started in 2004 and is still ongoing. The issues explored during his stay in Greece, in collaboration with the research group of respiratory rehabilitation related to the investigation of mechanisms below:
1. Respiratory muscle fatigue during exercise in healthy population
2. Competition for adequate irrigation between respiratory and peripheral muscles to exercise in healthy and pulmonary patients
3. The effect of hypoxia on the irrigation of the prefrontal cortex part of the brain to exercise in healthy and pulmonary patients

The published studies reported on the findings of the aforementioned biological mechanisms are found in the following link

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=vogiatzis+i+AND+wagner+p

The great contribution of Peter Wagner to the research events of THORAX Foundation is to develop an innovative method for recording blood flow in respiratory muscles during exercise both in healthy people and in patients with chronic respiratory and cardiac failure. The application of this method (which is achieved using infrared spectrometry combined with indocyanine green dye) to exercise in patients with chronic lung disease has given a definitive answer to the theory that wants the respiratory muscles to deprive a significant proportion of blood flow by leg muscles.

Recently, the THORAX Foundation research team, under the guidance of Professor Peter Wagner validate a pioneering method for perfusion-related disorder of oxygen consumption at exercise in pulmonary patients with muscle dysfunction.

Also, the prestigious international professors Andrea Aliverti, Helmut Sebastian Habazettl, Matteo Pecchiari, Robert Boushel, Abdul Hussain Sabah, Giuseppe Cirino, Anuran Chatterjee, Kirk Lane, John B. West, Drazen Jeffrey, Peter Barnes, John Murray, Sol Permutt, derived from different continents, in cooperation with scientific and research staff of the Foundation and the 1st Intensive Care Unit  conducted studies, research protocols and assist it in writing scientific publications in international scientific journals.