University of Iowa

Lung Heterogeneity

Dr. Kaczka’s research interests focus on quantifying mechanical heterogeneity in diseases of the respiratory system, such as asthma, COPD, and acute lung injury. His lab relies on several advanced engineering techniques to quantify lung heterogeneity and optimize ventilation distribution, such as forced oscillation measurements of lung impedance, digital signal processing, functional lung imaging, and computational modeling of respiratory mechanics.


  1. Kaczka DW, Herrmann J, Zonneveld CE, Tingay DG, Lavizzari A, Noble PB, Pillow JJ.
  2. Multifrequency oscillatory ventilation in the premature lung: effects on gas exchange, mechanics, and ventilation distribution. Anesthesiology 2015;123:1394-403.

Instruments for evaluating anesthesiologists’ performance in the operating room

Drs. Dexter, Hindman and colleagues are studying how anesthesia residents and nurse anesthetists evaluate faculty in order to better measure clinical performance and supervision of individual anesthesiologists.


  1. Dexter F, Ledolter J, Hindman BJ. Measurement of faculty anesthesiologists’ quality of clinical supervision has greater reliability when controlling for the leniency of the rating anesthesia resident: a retrospective cohort study. Can J Anesth 2017; 64: 643‑655.

Cervical spine instability

Dr. Hindman and colleagues are studying the effect of the force of the laryngoscope blade on patients with cervical spine instability. The goal of this research is to develop new, c-spine injury-specific intubation protocols that minimize the risk of neurologic damage in patients with high risk forms of cervical instability.


  1. Hindman BJ, Santoni BG, Puttlitz CM, From RP, Todd MM. Intubation biomechanics: laryngoscope force and cervical spine motion during intubation with Macintosh and Airtraq laryngoscopes. Anesthesiology 2014; 121(2):260-71

Chronic pain after thoracotomy

Drs. Bayman, Brennan and colleagues are assessing demographic, psychosocial, and surgical factors as predictors of acute and chronic pain after thoracic surgery using both frequentist and Bayesian statistical modeling.


  1. Bayman EO, Parekh KR, Keech J, Selte A, Brennan TJ. A prospective study of chronic pain after thoracic surgery. Anesthesiology 2017;126:938-951.

Ultrasound to improve success in radial artery cannulation

Although adult radial artery cannulation is a common invasive procedure in the operating room, intensive care unit and emergency department, successful radial artery cannulation can be technically challenging. The use of ultrasound by anesthetic trainees was more likely to succeed on the first attempt under ultrasound guidance compared with Doppler and palpation techniques, although there was no difference 5 min after the first attempt commenced.


  1. Ueda K, Bayman EO, Johnson C, Odum NJ, Lee JJ. A randomised controlled trial of radial artery cannulation guided by Doppler vs palpation vs ultrasound. Anaesthesia 2015; 70:1039-44

Mechanisms of functional impairment after major surgery using rodent models:

Drs. Kang, Brennan and colleagues are studying the mechanisms of functional impairment, including pain and motor dysfunction, after major surgery using rodent models. Better understanding these mechanisms will allow us to develop new perioperative strategies that can facilitate the recovery of activity for many postoperative patients.


  1. Sugiyama D, Kang S, Brennan TJ. Muscle reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to post-incisional guarding via the TRPA1 receptor. PLoS One 2017; 12: e0170410.

Nicotine and chronic pain

Smoking (nicotine) and chronic pain appear to function in a feed-forward cycle in which each promotes the other. Dr. Hammond’s lab is investigating the biological mechanisms by which injury may cause nicotine to lose its analgesic effects or nicotine may facilitate the chronification of pain after injury.


  1. Jareczek FJ, White SR, Hammond DL. Plasticity in brainstem mechanisms of pain modulation by nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the rat. eNeuro 2017;4:0364-16.2017.