Newsline — Friday, May 15, 2015 13:00
Study Links Post-acute Care Hospital Costs with Lower Survival Rates
Scientists Find New Link Between Diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease
Friday, May 15, 2015 9:00
In study recently published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers uncovered a connection between diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, providing further evidence that memory capabilities may be affected by elevated blood sugar. Previous studies have pointed to diabetes as a possible contributor to Alzheimer’s disease, however, the new study (in mice) shows that elevated blood glucose levels can rapidly increase levels of amyloid beta, a key component of brain plaques in Alzheimer’s disease patients. The buildup of plaque is thought to be an early driver of the complex set of changes that occur in the brain. To understand how elevated blood sugar might affect Alzheimer’s disease risk, the researchers infused glucose into the bloodstreams of mice bred to develop an Alzheimer’s-like condition. In young mice without amyloid plaques in their brains, doubling glucose levels in the blood increased amyloid beta levels in the brain by 20 percent. When the scientists repeated the experiment in older mice that already had developed brain plaques, amyloid beta levels rose by 40 percent. “Our results suggest that diabetes, or…
Read More…
Research Validates Dulled Thinking Effect in Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Thursday, May 14, 2015 13:00
New research from the University of Michigan has revealed more information regarding reports by depression and bipolar disorder sufferers who experience unexplained dulled-thinking abilities before the onset of their symptoms. Their findings, published in the journal BRAIN, explored prolonged cognitive testing of participants with depression and bipolar disorder while using advanced real-time brain scanning techniques. On the brain scans, the researchers found that the women with depression or bipolar disorder had different levels of activity compared to the healthy women in the right posterior parietal cortex. In those with depression, the activity in this area was higher than in healthy individuals, while in those with bipolar disorder it was lower. The area where the differences were seen helps control executive-function activities such as working memory, problem solving and reasoning. “In all, we show a shared cognitive dysfunction in women with mood disorders, which were pronounced in the cognitive control tests and more nuanced in scans. These findings support the idea of seeing mood disorders dimensionally, as a continuum of function to dysfunction across illnesses that are more…
Read More…
Medical Educators Say Ethics Training Needs Updating
Thursday, May 14, 2015 9:00
To accommodate 21st century ethical concerns and begin resolving discordant approaches to medical ethics training, scholars from leading medical schools from across the U.S. have issued updated education recommendations, published in the journal Academic Medicine. The “Romanell Report” builds on the “DeCamp Report,” published three decades ago, in order to address contemporary concerns, including cultural diversity, clinician work-life balance and team-based health care coordination. The report also highlights the enduring goals of medical professionalism, citing the need for “sustaining medicine as a public trust, rather than a guild primarily concerned with protecting the economic, political and social power of its members,” said the lead author of the Romanell Report. The new report also expands on the Decamp Report’s list of learning objectives for medical ethics education and addresses new issues including teaching methods, assessment strategies, learning environment and ensuring sufficient support and rewards for faculty. To read more about this, click here.
Light, Not Pain-Killing Drugs Used to Activate Brain’s Opioid Receptors
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 13:00
A groundbreaking new treatment may replace opioid drugs for sufferers of intense pain by combining a light-gathering protein with opioid receptors, in order to activate those pathways using light rather than traditional chemical reactions. Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis published their findings in the journal Neuron, detailing their formulation of a light-detecting protein based on those found within the retinas of the eye, and implanting it in opioid receptors of mouse brains. Following this procedure, light emitting diodes (LEDs) the size of a human hair were installed within the reward response section of the brain in order to remotely activate opioid receptors without the use of drugs. “It’s been difficult to determine exactly how opioid receptors work because they have multiple functions in the body,” explained the author. “These receptors interact with pain-killing drugs called opiates, but they also are involved in breathing, are found in the gastrointestinal tract and play a role in the reward response.” The researchers were able to vary the animals’ response depending on the amount…
Read More…
Motion-Tracking MRI Tests Reveal Novel Indication of Stroke Risk in A-fib
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 8:57
In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers from Johns Hopkins University performed sophisticated motion studies of MRI scans to help predict the stroke risk of people with atrial fibrillation (a-fib). The results from the scans found that specific altered function in the left atrium of the heart may signal stroke risk in those with a-fib and, possibly, those without it. The imaging technique combines standard MRI scans with a motion-tracking software that can analyze cardiac muscle movement. Researchers say the specialized tests can pave the way to more accurate risk-gauging models and more precise therapy for those with the highest likelihood of stroke. The study results, according to the research term, also cast doubt on the current clinical dogma that chaotic beating of the upper chambers of the heart during a-fib fuels the blood clot formation that causes stroke. That view, the team says, has failed to explain why many people with atrial fibrillation never have strokes and why many with history of atrial fibrillation have no evidence…
Read More…
Clot Removal Device Results in Dramatically Improved Stroke Outcomes
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 13:00
New research indicates that stroke victims given clot-dissolving drugs upon initial treatment, whose obstructing blood clots were physically removed using a stent retriever device (along with drug treatments) showed highly reduced long-term disability and improved chances of regaining full daily function. Researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles Stroke Center published their wide-scale study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study, which detailed how the Solitaire stent retrieval device was tested in elective stroke patients, analyzed long-term success rates in order to determine if the procedure was worth the higher inherent risks compared to traditional drug treatments. The findings from the study showed that 60 percent of patients who had physical clot removal regained full independence, compared to 35 percent of those on drug-only treatments. “These findings are a paradigm shift, a new era in stroke care and we are ecstatic,” said the lead author. “We will be able to treat many more patients, who will have much better outcomes. This is a once-in-a-generation advance in acute stroke care.” To learn…
Read More…
Fat Signals Control Energy Levels in the Brain
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 9:00
According to new research conducted by the Washington University School of Medicine, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, an enzyme secreted by the body’s fat tissue may control energy levels in the brain. The findings suggest that the body’s fat tissue plays a role in controlling the brain’s response to food scarcity, and also suggest that there is an optimal amount of body fat for maximizing health and longevity. “We showed that fat tissue controls brain function in a really interesting way,” said the senior author of the study. “The results suggest that there is an optimal amount of fat tissue that maximizes the function of the control center of aging and longevity in the brain. We still don’t know what that amount is or how it might vary by individual. But at least in mice, we know that if they don’t have enough of a key enzyme produced by fat, an important part of the brain can’t maintain its energy levels.” The findings may help explain the many studies that show a survival benefit…
Read More…
Popular Electric Brain-stimulation Method Detrimental to IQ Scores
Monday, May 11, 2015 11:16
In response to the increasingly popular practice of using low-voltage electric currents for brain stimulation via home-made or commercially sold devices, researchers from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have tested the efficiency of those utilizing this method, and have found a visibly detrimental effect on IQ test scores. Published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research, the study took a standard group of adults and tested them on a standard WAIS-IV intelligence test. Throughout the following week, half the group was subjected to carefully applied low-voltage brain stimulation designed to mimic those being built and sold by amateurs on the private market. During the second IQ test, those who had undergone electrical stimulation displayed a drastic decline in overall scores due to a manipulated sense of focus and concentration. “It would be wonderful if we could use tDCS to enhance cognition because then we could potentially use it to treat cognitive impairment in psychiatric illnesses,” said the author. “So, this study is bad news. Yet, the finding makes sense. It means that some…
Read More…
New Insight Into How the Brain Makes Memories
Monday, May 11, 2015 1:00
A team of biologists from Vanderbilt University recently studied how new memory connections are formed in the brain at the molecular and cellular level. The filaments that make these new connections, called dendritic spines, were studied a series of experiments published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. During the study, researchers reported that a specific signaling protein, Asef2, a member of a family of proteins that regular cell migration and adhesion, plays a critical role in spine formation. The findings are significant because Asef2 has previously been linked to autism and the co-occurrence of alcohol dependency and depression. “Alterations in dendritic spines are associated with many neurological and developmental disorders, such as autism, Alzheimer’s disease and down syndrome,” said the study’s lead researcher. “However, the formation and maintenance of spines is a very complex process that we are just beginning to understand.” Autism has been associated with immature spines, which do not connect properly with axons to form new synaptic junctions. However, a reduction in spines is characteristic of the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease….
Read More…