The Hindu : National : India-U.K. tie-up on autonomic nervous system research soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005

National

National

India-U.K. tie-up on autonomic nervous system research soon

By Ramya Kannan

Christopher Mathias

CHENNAI, FEB. 15. Collaboration between the United Kingdom and institutions for neurosciences in India, in the clinical practice and research on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) would be facilitated in future, Christopher Mathias, Professor of Neurovascular Medicine in the University of London, said here today.

While linkages with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore were going on, Dr. Mathias predicted a tie-up with Chennai's T.S. Srinivasan Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, Voluntary Health Services Centre.

This would open up enormous possibilities in the autonomic and allied neurological fields, he added. ANS is a component of the human nervous system that works automatically, building an intricate pathway between the brain, the blood vessels and the various organs and their functions. Therefore, detecting abnormalities in ANS would indicate the possibility of organ failure in a patient, and also ensure appropriate treatment. Though it initially began as esoteric, experimental research, it has since progressed to the clinical application stage. Some of the common problems that are associated with ANS include diabetes, Parkinson's, common fainting and male sexual dysfunction.

Dr. Mathias, who also serves the Imperial College School of Medicine and the Institute of Neurology, University College, London, said the basic structure would comprise a state-of-the-art technical diagnostics laboratory, which will serve patients who come to the centre and those who are treated by the VHS' mini-health centres. It would be supplemented with training for clinical and diagnostic staff on identifying and treating patients with disorders related to ANS.

There were a number of instances where persons with common fainting disorders have been wrongly diagnosed as suffering from epilepsy or heart problems, when it was actually malfunctioning of ANS.

At a later stage, pharmacogenomics would play an important role in the study, he added.

He believes that the partnership would eventually lend itself to examining important trans-cultural issues in mapping the systems and demonstrating differences between ethnic groups.

Born in Mangalore and educated in Bangalore, Dr. Mathias was among the two Rhodes scholars from India to Oxford in 1972. The project would be started on a pilot basis in the T.S. Srinivasan Clinical Centre for Neurosciences, its director, E.S. Krishnamoorthy, added. Specialists and students from multiple disciplines would be trained as part of the project, in addition to providing a vast valid sample group of patients, from the VHS network of mini health centres for the study, who would be provided treatment free of cost, Dr. Krishnamoorthy said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National