Biomarkers for Risk and Clinical Outcome Prediction of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction

Summary

Postoperative cognitive impairment is increasingly prevalent in our aging society. This condition often has an acute phase of Postoperative Delirium (POD) which may then be followed by a more chronic phase of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD), which tends to persist over time. BIOCOG, a European FP7 funded project, aims to establish biomarkers for risk and clinical outcome prediction of POD/POCD.

Project aims

The study population are patients aged 65 to 80 undergoing major elective surgery. The work undertaken in Cambridge will focus on MRI imaging and will investigate whether brain network properties obtained from MRI diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures, relate to those obtained from resting state functional MRI data. Structural and functional network properties will be related to neuropsychological and clinical measures (e.g. Fislage et al., 2022; Fislage et al., 2024).

Experience in neuroimaging, in particular MRI analysis, is required for these projects. Skills in scientific computing and programming (e.g, Linux, Matlab, Python) are essential. 

Contact details

Emmanuel A Stamatakis (eas46@cam.ac.uk) Anaesthesia

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD
• MPhil