Newsline — Friday, February 1, 2013 13:03
AHA/ASA Issues New Guidelines for Treatment of Acute Ischemic Stroke
Infant Brain Structure Predicts Language Skills at One Year of Age
Friday, February 1, 2013 13:00
Using a brain-imaging technique that examines the entire infant brain, researchers have found that the anatomy of certain brain areas — the hippocampus and cerebellum — can predict children’s language abilities at one year of age. The University of Washington study is the first to associate these brain structures with future language skills. The results appear in the January issue of the journal Brain and Language. “The brain of the baby holds an infinite number of secrets just waiting to be uncovered, and these discoveries will show us why infants learn languages like sponges, far surpassing our skills as adults,” says co-author Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Mayo Study Finds That ‘July Effect’ In Hospitals Is a Myth When It Comes To Spine Surgery
Friday, February 1, 2013 9:32
The “July Effect” — the notion that July is the most dangerous time to be a patient because of new, inexperienced residents at hospitals — is a myth, at least when it comes to spine surgery, according to a new study from Mayo Clinic researchers. Research results, which appear in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, show that there is no spike in in-hospital deaths or complications after surgery in July compared to other months. That said, researchers did find an increase of infection after surgery as well as in the number of patients being discharged to long-term facilities in July in teaching hospitals. However, they said that these increases were not enough to account for the “July Effect.” The findings are based on analysis of nearly one million spine surgery hospitalizations that occurred between 2001 and 2008 that were included in the nationwide inpatient sample. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Rare Diagnosis Saves Six-Year-Old Thought to Have Brain Tumor
Thursday, January 31, 2013 13:00
One day, six-year-old Keira Vidikan developed a minor headache just before heading off to her ballet class in Dayton, Ohio. Less than two weeks later, she was in a coma at the Cleveland Clinic, nearly paralyzed and unable to speak. “I think this was the darkest night we will ever have,” says her mother, Michelle Vidikan. After scanning Keira’s brain, emergency room doctors suspected a glioma — an aggressive form of brain cancer. As Vidikan and her husband, Mario, waited out the night at the local hospital. But the next morning, after six hours of tests, there came a ray of hope: an MRI showed the mass was more vascular in nature. Keira was referred to the Cleveland Clinic for an evaluation. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Genomic Sequencing Reveals Mutant ‘Drivers’ of Common Brain Tumor
Thursday, January 31, 2013 8:00
Large-scale genomic sequencing has revealed two DNA mutations that appear to drive about 15 percent of brain tumors known as meningiomas. This finding could lead to the first effective drug treatments for the tumors, according to scientists at both the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute. Surgery and radiation currently are the only treatments for meningioma, which are slow-growing, often-benign tumors that develop in the membranes surrounding the brain. Meningiomas can grow dangerously large, resulting in seizures and limb weakness — occasionally, they are fatal. In some instances, the tumors grow aggressively or their locations make surgery and radiation a challenge to carry out. Chemotherapy has proven ineffective as an alternative. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Study Uses Brain Imaging to Identify Proteins Linked to Brain Injury in Retired NFL Players
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 13:00
Sports-related concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries continue to make headlines, as the long-term damage they can cause becomes increasingly evident among both current and former athletes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of these injuries occur each year. Despite the devastating consequences of traumatic brain injury and the large number of athletes playing contact sports who are at risk, no method has been developed for early detection or tracking of the brain pathology associated with these injuries … until now. For the first time, UCLA researchers have used a brain-imaging tool to identify the abnormal tau proteins associated with this type of repetitive injury in five retired NFL players who are still living. Previously, confirmation of the presence of this protein — which also is associated with Alzheimer’s disease — could only be established by an autopsy. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Kazakhstan to Introduce Surgery for Tremor, Parkinson’s Diseases
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 9:38
A new approach to treatment of tremor and Parkinson’s diseases is coming to Kazakhstan, according to Tengrinews.kz, quoting the development director of the State Scientific Neurosurgery Center, Chingiz Shashkin, at a round-table meeting called Neurology and neurosurgery. Joint strategies. “This year, we are planning to implement new methods of treatment of Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and dystonia: these methods involve deep brain stimulation that suppresses symptoms like tremor and Parkinson’s diseases,” he says. “The surgery is highly effective, and allows to treat the patients at an early stage and very quickly get them back to normal life. The plan is to implement a method of treatment of neuropatic pain by neurostumulation of spinal cord, when special small electrodes are implanted into the spinal cord and then connected to highly-technological electronic devices transmitting electric signals to the cord. This modulates the nervous system and helps cope with neuropatic pain in limbs.” According to Shashkin, this technology has minimal risks. The advantage of neurostimulation lies in the fact that if ineffective, the electrodes can be easily extracted…
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President Obama Questions Safety of Football Due to Violent Injuries, Including Concussions
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 13:00
President Barack Obama says he’s a football fan, but if he had a son, considering the impact the game has on its players, he would think long and hard before allowing his son to play, according to an article on ESPN.com. In an interview to appear in the Feb. 11 issue of The New Republic, Obama says that football fans are going to have to wrestle with the fact that the game will probably change over time to try to reduce the violence. The president notes that some of those changes might make the sport, in his words, “a bit less exciting,” but that it will be much better for players. “And those of us who are fans maybe won’t have to examine our consciences quite as much,” he says. For more information, click here to read the full article.
Tumor ‘Separation Surgery’ Followed by Stereotactic Radiosurgery Found Safe, Effective in Controlling Spinal Metastases
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 8:00
Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have found that tumor “separation surgery,” followed by high-dose hypofractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or high-dose single-fraction SRS, is safe and effective in controlling spinal metastases, regardless of the radiosensitivity of the particular tumor type that has invaded the spine. These findings are highlighted in “Local disease control for spinal metastases following ‘separation surgery’ and adjuvant hypofractionated or high-dose single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery: outcome analysis in 186 patients. Clinical article,” by Ilya Laufer, MD, and colleagues, which appears in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine. For the article, authors reviewed and analyzed data in the charts of 186 patients who presented with epidural spinal cord compression due to spinal metastases. All of these patients underwent tumor separation surgery to decompress the spinal cord and stabilize the spine sometime between 2002 and 2011. During this procedure, the tumor was dissected away from the spinal cord, or separated, providing a space between the spinal dura and any remaining tumor. For more information, click here to read the full release.
Physicians See ‘Significant Brain Activity’ in Comatose Former Israeli Prime Minister
Monday, January 28, 2013 13:00
Doctors in Israel say they had detected “significant brain activity” during tests on former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has been in a coma since suffering a brain hemorrhage seven years ago. During two hours of tests late last week, brain scientists showed Sharon pictures of his family, had him listen to his son’s voice and employed tactile stimulation — and were surprised when scans indicated his brain was processing the stimuli appropriately. Sharon, 84, was a divisive figure in Israeli politics. A former army officer, as prime minister, he supported the expansion of Jewish settlements; then, in 2005, he orchestrated a military and civilian withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. After he suffered the massive stroke in 2006, Sharon was declared permanently incapacitated and had been presumed to be in a vegetative state. For more information, click here to read the full release.