Hypertension and the Brain as an End-Organ Target

A systematic review of reviews to examine the association between hypertension and cognitive impairments in adults.- Hypertension and age-related cognitive decline.- Hypertension and stroke.- Neuroimaging as a research tool in human essential hypertension.- Cognitive Dysfunction and Dementia in animal models of hypertension.- The effects of hypertension on cerebral artery structure and function, and cerebral blood flow.- Arterial stiffness and the brain.- Endothelium, the blood-brain barrier, and hypertension.- Hypertension and brain inflammation: role of RAS-induced glial activation.- Sex differences in neural regulation of hypertension.

Dr Girouard completed her PhD in cardiovascular physiology in 2002 at the Université de Montreal under the supervision of Dr. J. de Champlain, a specialist in the field of hypertension. She then pursued two fellowships, both on the study of cerebrovascular regulation: one at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a second at the University of Vermont under the supervisions of Dr. Costantino Iadecola and Dr Mark T. Nelson, respectively. She is now Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology at the Université de Montréal and the Director of the Laboratory of Neurovascular Pharmacology. Throughout her career, Dr. Girouard received prizes including the Merck New Investigator Prize of the 'Société Québécoise d'Hypertension Artérielle' and the Young Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. She has been elected Fellow of the American Heart Association. She is involved in many Societies related to Hypertension and neurosciences, in particular the 'Société Québécoise d'Hypertension Artérielle' in which she is member of the Board of Directors.

Dr. Girouard research interests include the study of the mechanisms underlying cerebrovascular regulation in health and diseases, especially in the context of hypertension and arterial stiffness. The main objective of her research is to find therapeutical targets to protect the brain from vascular diseases. To reach this objective, she is using various techniques from molecular biologyto brain imaging in mice and humans. She published mostly in the field of hypertension and cerebrovascular regulation.