Lay summary
Although stroke is among the most common causes of mortality and morbidity in New Zealand, there is limited translational research to improve stroke outcome in this country. In my previous work, I found increasing nitric oxide bioavailability with dietary nitrate supplementation improved the control of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in patients at high risk of stroke. Building on this, the goal of this research is to identify novel treatments to improve patient outcome following stroke. Using duplex and transcranial Doppler sonography to measure CBF, I will determine the effects of inhaled nitric oxide and argon gases on cerebral haemodyanmics in healthy individuals and hypertensive patients. Insights gained from this research will lay the foundation for future clinical trials to examine the use of nitric oxide and argon to slow the progression of brain injury, which will significantly improve how acute stroke is treated and managed within New Zealand.