Miss Gita Lobo came third place in the oral presentations at the Royal Society of Medicine Venous Forum, Wimpole Street, 11-12 July 2017. The research was on evaluating the efficiency of the calf muscle pump using simultaneous duplex ultrasound over the popliteal vein and air-plethysmography (APG) around the calf.
During her prize-winning presentation, Gita confirmed previous work that the tip-toe ankle joint manoeuvre is suboptimal as a pump. She went on to demonstrate that body weight transfer or a walking step movement was much better at pumping. Significant correlations were observed in calf volume reduction (APG) versus blood volume ejection out of the calf (duplex). Bimodal velocity profiles were evaluated with ultrasound indicating the complexity of pumping and the involvement of different muscle groups.
This was a joint collaboration between Imperial College London and the medical students of the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine with Professor Stephen Ash as their UK Dean.