Interest in the humane and scientifically justifiable use of research animals has intensified since the publication of the first edition of this textbook. This completely revised and updated text provides information essential to any researcher interested in using animal models for cardiovascular research, or any research which requires normal cardiovascular function. The format and presentation have been changed to make the text more easy to read and use. An introductory chapter offers general principles of animal selection, pre and post-operative care, preanesthesia, chemical restraint, analgesia, and the recognition of pain. The number of references cited has been almost doubled over the previous text and the chapter tabulating normal cardiovascular parameters from intact, awake animals, of those species commonly used in research, has been greatly expanded. Other chapters providing comprehensive data on the cardiovascular effects of opioids, tranquilizers, anesthetic agents and other drugs commonly used in cardiovascular research have been expanded with special emphasis on species variability to drug effects. The chapters on both naturally occurring and iatrogenic models of cardiovascular disease have also been expanded and updated.
Dr. David R. Gross entered private veterinary practice after earning the DVM degree from Colorado State University in 1960. A few years later he developed an abiding interest in cardiovascular physiology. In 1974 he was awarded the PhD degree in physiology from the Ohio State University beginning a 36-year career in academics that culminated as professor and head of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
His academic career began at Texas A&M University, where he spent 16 years and became a full professor. The Texas experience was followed by 5 years at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, as Director of the Cardiovascular Surgery Research Laboratories in the Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. In 1995 he accepted the position at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Gross' research career encompassed 58 funded projects totaling over $5.5 million and 91 papers published in refereed journals using a wide variety of animal models. Ironically his three most-cited research papers received no external funding. He and his colleagues showed that feeding dietary cholesterol to rabbits induced Alzheimer's-like lesions in the brain. Their work also showed that surgery involving cardiopulmonary bypass resulted in Alzheimer's-like brain lesions in pigs. With another group of colleagues he helped pioneer minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting techniques using the pig as a model.
Dr. Gross retired in 2006 and is now Professor Emeritus.
Important other publications:
Robinson, M.E., Gross, D.R., Thielmeir, K.A., Hill, B.B., Zeman, W.F., Development of a minimally invasive technique for coronary revascularization in a porcine model, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 64(1): 64-69, 1997
Robinson, M.C., Gross, D. R., Zeman, W., and Stedje-Larsen, Minimally Invasive Coronary
Artery Bypass Grafting: A New Method Using an Anterior Mediastinotomy, J Cardiac Surg,10:529-536, 1995
Sparks, D.L., Liu, H., Gross, D.R., Scheff, S.W., Increased Density of Cortical Apolipoprotein E Immunoreactive Neurons in Rabbit Brain After Dietary Administration of Cholesterol, Neuroscience Letters, 187: 142-144, 1995
Sparks, D.L., Gross, D.R., Hunsaker, J.C. III, Neuropathology of mitral valve prolapse in man and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery in adolescent Yorkshire pigs. Neurobiology of Aging, 21(2):363-372, 2000
