Newsline — Thursday, September 6, 2012 13:00
NFL Players More Likely Than General Population To Die from Alzheimer’s, ALS
New Mechanical Device Removes Stroke-Causing Blood Clots From Brain
Thursday, September 6, 2012 9:09
A new device that mechanically removes stroke-causing clots from the brain may be a game-changer for doctors, who have very few proven treatmentments for stroke, which the fourth leading cause of death and a common cause of long-term disability in the U.S. In a recent clinical trial, the SOLITAIRE Flow Restoration Device outperformed the standard mechanical treatment. SOLITAIRE, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March, is among an entirely new generation of devices designed to remove blood clots from blocked brain arteries in patients experiencing an ischemic stroke. It has a self-expanding, stent-like design, and once inserted into a blocked artery using a thin catheter tube, it compresses and traps the clot. The clot then is removed by withdrawing the device, which reopens the blocked blood vessel. Findings from a trial — SOLITAIRE With the Intention for Thrombectomy (SWIFT) — are available online from The Lancet and also will run in an upcoming print edition of the journal. For more information, click here to read the full release.
National Institutes of Health To Receive $30 Million from NFL for Concussion, Brain Trauma Research
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 12:49
Today, National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the organization is pledging $30 million for medical research to the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The research will be designed to benefit athletes and the general population, including members of the military, he noted. Potential areas of research under the grant include the brain — specifically, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), concussion management and treatment, and understanding the relationship between traumatic brain injury and late-life neurodegenerative disorders, especially Alzheimer’s disease. “We hope this grant will help accelerate the medical community’s pursuit of pioneering research to enhance the health of athletes past, present and future,” Goodell said. Stephanie James, PhD, the NIH’s acting executive director, said that she expects the grant to have a positive effect on people in all walks of life. For more information, click here to read the full article.
Risk of Developing Certain Brain Tumors Caused by Genomic Variants
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 9:33
People who carry a “G” instead of an “A” at a specific spot in the sequence of their genetic code have about a six-fold higher risk of developing certain types of brain tumors, reports researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)and Mayo Clinic. The study was jointly led by geneticists Margaret Wrensch, PhD, and John Wiencke, PhD, professors in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UCSF, and Robert Jenkins, MD, PhD, professor of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and the Division of Laboratory Genetics at the Mayo Clinic. The findings, which appear in the Aug. 26, 2012, edition of the journal Nature Genetics, could help researchers identify those who are at risk of developing certain subtypes of gliomas, which account for about 4,600 of the 23,000 brain cancers that are newly diagnosed annually in the U.S. This information could lead to better surveillance, diagnosis and treatment. For more information, click here for the full release.
Journal of Neurosurgery Supplement Explores Cutting-Edge Therapies for Spinal Cord Injuries
Friday, August 31, 2012 12:05
The Journal of Neurosurgery (JNS) Publishing Group has announced publication of the North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN)/AOSpine North America (AOSNA) Focus Issue on Spinal Cord Injury, a supplement to the September issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. Sponsored by AOSNA, the supplement is available in print and online, with the latter version being free to the public at https://thejns.org/toc/spisup/17/1. The focus of this special supplement — which was spearheaded by Michael Fehlings, MD, PhD, FAANS, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and medical director of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at the Toronto Western Hospital — is the development of cutting-edge translational research in the treatment of spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI is an often-devastating injury that affects 2.5 million people worldwide, many of whom are first faced with it in early adulthood. The topic is addressed in a variety of forms in 17 articles and several editorials. For more information, click here to read the full article.
Researchers Dig Deeper into Differences Between Human Brains vs. Chimp Brains
Thursday, August 30, 2012 10:10
Ninety-six percent of a chimpanzee’s genome is the same as a human’s — it’s the other 4 percent (and the vast differences) that intrigue Soojin Yi, a faculty member at Georgia Tech’s School of Biology. For example, why do humans have a high risk of cancer, while chimps rarely develop the disease? According to research in the September edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, after looking at brain samples from each species, Yi discovered that differences in certain DNA modifications, called methylation, may contribute to phenotypic changes. The results also suggest that DNA methylation plays a key role for some disease-related phenotypes in humans, such as cancer and autism. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Scientists Question Validity of ImPACT Concussion Testing
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 15:00
With some 1,700 football players in the NFL and 66,000 in college, in addition to 1.1 million in high schools and 250,000 more in Pop Warner youth programs, athletes and families across the country are eager to find ways to reduce the risk of brain injury, especially given the frightening consequences that are regularly reported on by the media. A wave of companies offering diagnostic tools and concussion treatments — including ImPACT, maker of the world’s most popular concussion evaluation system — are just as eager to sell them peace of mind, according to ESPN The Magazine. ImPACT markets a 20-minute computerized test that players can take via software or online to measure verbal and visual memory, processing speed, reaction time and impulse control — the idea being that doctors or athletic trainers can give a baseline test to a healthy athlete, conduct follow-up tests after an injury and then compare the results to help determine when it’s OK to return the athlete to play. Most NFL clubs use the test, as do all MLB,…
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MRIs Show that Piano Tuners’ Brains Adapt to Specialized Form of Listening
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 12:10
Tuning a piano also tunes the brain, according to researchers who have seen structural changes within the brains of professional piano tuners. Investigators at University College London and Newcastle University have discovered that listening to two notes played simultaneously makes the brain adapt. Brain scans revealed highly specific changes in the hippocampus, which governs memory and navigation. These correlated with the number of years piano tuners had been doing the job. The Wellcome Trust (a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health) researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to compare the brains of 19 professional piano tuners who played two notes at the same time in order to make them pitch-perfect, in addition to 19 other subjects. For more information, click here to read the full article.
Researchers Target Brain Impairments Such as Schizophrenia with Early Intervention
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 13:00
An early intervention to address neuropsychiatric deficiencies, or preemptive cognitive training, can help the brain function normally later in life, according to a team of researchers after a recent series of experiments on laboratory rats. Their findings hold promise for addressing a range of brain impairments in humans, including schizophrenia. The study — which was conducted at New York University’s Center for Neural Science, the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research — appears in the latest issue of the journal Neuron. Researchers have aimed to address human neuropsychiatric impairments such as schizophrenia through mental training — for example, executive function exercises through which patients can learn to focus their attention and selectively recall important information. These methods, collectively titled cognitive remediation, have been of limited value historically because they have been applied to patients whose conditions are too advanced to address. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Schools Get Proactive with Concussion Testing Before Fall Sports Start
Tuesday, August 28, 2012 8:00
Some schools are requiring student-athletes to take a 20-minute neurocognitive test called ImPACT before the fall sports season starts as a means of protecting against multiple concussions — a move that is keeping some players off the field, at least in the short term, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. “I don’t want to ruin my whole future just for playing one week with a concussion,” said one athlete in an interview. Click here for the full video story.