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Associate Professor
Department of Medical Technology
University of Delaware
305F Willard Hall Education Building
Newark DE 19716
Email: rmaser@udel.edu
Phone: (302)-831-8400
Fax: (302)-831-4180
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, PA, 1989
M.S., Medical Technology, The Catholic University of America, DC, 1984
B.S., Biology, Elizabethtown College, PA, 1980
Diabetes is in epidemic proportions with 300 million adults predicted to have the disease by 2025. Unfortunately, complications such as neuropathy (i.e., damage to the nerves), retinopathy, nephropathy, and macrovascular disease may arise as a result of the presence of diabetes. My research interest is in the area of diabetic neuropathy, particularly nerves that control the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS has an important regulatory role of the cardiovascular system with dysfunction of the ANS resulting in a broad range of impairments (e.g., increased cardiovascular workload, hemodynamic stress, serious dysrhythmias, and significant cardiac pathology).
In persons with diabetes, impaired cardiovascular autonomic nervous system activity is characterized by a reduction in parasympathetic tone with a relative increase in sympathetic activity. Cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction is specifically associated with a number of clinically significant manifestations including exercise intolerance, intraoperative cardiovascular lability, orthostatic hypotension, silent myocardial ischemia, and increased risk of mortality. Clinical investigations that we are now currently enrolling participants for focus on: (a) measuring cardiovascular autonomic function and (b) searching for potential treatment modalities for cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction.