Prof Murray Esler

Divisional Head, Vascular Biology and Hypertension
Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute

Murray Esler is a cardiologist and medical scientist, based at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. His research interests are:
-The human sympathetic nervous system
-Stress, and its effects on the heart and blood pressure
-Causes and treatment of high blood pressure and heart failure
-Neurotransmitters of the human brain
Dr Esler's principal research contribution has been the development of isotope dilution methodology to study the human sympathetic nervous system in internal organs not assessible to microneurography ("regional noradrenaline spillover" technique), and the application of this tool in the investigation of the sympathetic neural physiology of circulatory control, aging, exercise and mental stress responses, and the neural pathophysiology of cardiac failure and essential hypertension. His demonstration of chronic activation of the cardiac sympathetic outflow in heart failure provided the theoretical backdrop for the evaluation of beta-adrenergic blockers. More recently, his demonstration of activation of the renal sympathetic outflow in essential hypertension was the stimulus for the development of a new treatment for difficult to control patients, radio-frequency ablation of the renal sympathetic nerves with a purpose-designed renal artery catheter. He was chief investigator of a randomized trial successfully evaluating this new treatment.