Dr. Govindaiah Vinukonda, Assistant Professor in the department of Pediatrics, New York Medical College is investigating pathogenesis of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH), post hemorrhagic hydrocephalus, and white matter injury. Dr.Vinukonda recently has been awarded Scientist Development Grant Award from American heart Association at national level.

Premature infants are vulnerable to brain hemorrhage around the cavity of the brain (ventricle) and large hemorrhage in this region progresses to intraventricular hemorrhage. The area around the ventricle susceptible to hemorrhage is known as germinal matrix and the clinical condition associated with bleeding in the germinal matrix is called germinal matrix hemorrhage-intraventricular hemorrhage (GMH-IVH). Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a major complication of prematurity and approximately 12,240 premature infants develop intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) every year in the United States alone. Infants with IVH are predisposed to hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, and mental retardation. Hydrocephalus develops in 9%, 36% and 47% survivors of mild, moderate and severe IVH respectively. Clinical strategies to prevent or minimize post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus are currently inadequate and largely unsuccessful. Our laboratory is addressing this deficit by developing a mechanism-based therapeutic strategy. We are also studying post hemorrhagic white matter injury in rabbit model.

Our recent work published in Brain (2010) offers a novel strategy of neuroprotection that can be treated in premature infants with IVH. Other study published in Stroke (2010) highlights mechanistic basis of the use of prenatal glucocorticoid to prevent intraventricular hemorrhage in preterm infants.