Newsline — Friday, July 27, 2012 8:00
U.S. News & World Report Names Top-Ranked Hospitals for Neurology & Neurosurgery,Top Doctors
Scientists Decode Neurons to Read Monkeys’ Minds
Thursday, July 26, 2012 13:00
Over the course of the past past 30 years, researchers have learned that clear information can be gathered by decoding the activity of large populations of neurons. Now, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis who were decoding the brain activity of monkeys as they reached around an obstacle to touch a target have achieved two remarkable results. The first results was expected: They demonstrated that multiple parameters can be embedded in the firing rate of a single neuron and that certain types of parameters are encoded only if needed to solve the task at hand. The second result was a surprise: They found that the population vectors could unveil different planning strategies, allowing the scientists, in effect, to read the monkeys’ minds. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Hospitals’ Stroke-Care Rankings Change When Adjusted for Stroke Severity
Thursday, July 26, 2012 10:19
Per the Affordable Care Act, hospitals and medical centers are required to report their quality-of-care and risk-standardized outcomes for stroke and other common medical conditions. However, a new study out of University of California, Los Angeles finds that reporting models for mortality that don’t consider stroke severity may unfairly skew the results. According to research, when reporting on 30-day mortality rates for Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with acute stroke, using a model that accounts for stroke severity alters performance outcomes and rankings for many hospitals. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Study Finds that Biomarker May Increase Odds of Developing Alzheimer’s Disease
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 13:00
Higher levels of ceramides — a certain fat in the blood — may increase a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to research that appears in the July 18, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Our study identifies this biomarker as a potential new target for treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease,” says author Michelle M. Mielke, PhD, an epidemiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who was with Johns Hopkins University at the time of the research. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Heart Disease, Type 2 Diabetes May Be Linked to Lack of Blood Flow to Brain
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 8:00
Metabolic syndrome, the combination of risk factors that often lead to heart disease and type 2 diabetes, may be linked to lower blood flow to the brain, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Study participants with multiple risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome — including abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol — averaged 15 percent less blood flow to the brain than those in a control group, based on the results of brain scans used to measure cerebral blood flow, says Barbara Bendlin, PhD, a researcher for the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and an assistant professor of medicine (geriatrics) at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. For more information, click here to read the full release
Mentally Ill Patients More Likely to Develop Cancer
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 13:00
Those suffering from serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and disabling depression are 2.6 times more likely to develop cancer than the general population, according to new research from Johns Hopkins University. The study raise questions about whether mentally ill patients are receiving appropriate cancer screenings and preventive care as they relate to risk factors for cancer such as smoking. The findings appear in the journal Psychiatric Services. For more information, click here to read the full release.
American Academy of Neurology Offers New Guideline on Treatment of Huntington’s Disease
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 10:02
The American Academy of Neurology has issued a new guideline that recommends several treatments for those suffering from Huntington’s disease who experience chorea — jerky, random, uncontrollable movements that can make everyday activities challenging. The guideline appears in the July 18, 2012, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “Chorea can be disabling, worsen weight loss and increase the risk of falling,” says the guideline’s lead author, Melissa Armstrong, MD, MSc, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine Department of Neurology, a member of the American Academy of Neurology. For more information, click here to read the full release.
NHL, NFL Teams Using Military-grade Pads to Prevent Concussion on the Field
Monday, July 23, 2012 14:44
In the last 12 months, more than 20 NHL and NFL teams have started outfitting their players’ equipment with Unequal Technologies’ patented, military-grade, Kevlar-reinforced pads, which claim to reduce the G-force generated by an impact by up to 25 percent, thus reducing the risk of concussion and other injuries. As the company’s CEO, Rob Vito, recently told Wired magazine, “If Kevlar can stop a bullet, it can damn sure stop a blitz.” Two dozen professional players now are using EXO Skeleton CRT (Concussion Reduction Technology) pads in their helmets; more than 100 are using it in their shoulder pads, elbow pads and other gear. This summer, Vito is taking his product mainstream through a multimillion dollar ad campaign targeting hundreds of thousands of youth league players across the country. For more information, click here to read the full article.
Concussion Rates on the Rise for Collegiate Football
Monday, July 23, 2012 9:26
Despite growing interest in concussion prevention strategies, one group that appears to have increasing head injury rates is collegiate football players. Research presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM’s) Annual Meeting in Baltimore notes that the concussion rate in three college football programs has doubled in recent years. “We monitored concussions at three service academies in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 football seasons, and saw the combined number of reports increased from 23 to 42 in this timespan,” says Kelly G. Kilcoyne, MD, lead author from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, DC. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Scientists Assemble Chronological Account of How Alzheimer’s Develops
Friday, July 20, 2012 13:33
Scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine have assembled the most detailed timeline to date of the human brain’s slow descent into full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. The data appears in the July 11 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. As part of an international research partnership called the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network (DIAN), researchers at Washington University and elsewhere evaluated a variety of pre-symptomatic markers of Alzheimer’s disease in 128 subjects from families that are genetically predisposed to develop the disorder. Individuals who participated in the study have a 50 percent chance of inheriting one of three mutations that are certain to cause Alzheimer’s, often at an unusually young age. For more information, click here to read the full release.