Medical Marijuana: A Growing Trend The legalization of marijuana for medical use is sweeping the nation. It is currently legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia; legislatures in 14 additional states are considering bills to legalize it for medical use in 2014. However, The Drug Enforcement Agency still lists marijuana as a Schedule…
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an extended-release combination of oxycodone and acetaminophen (Xartemis XR, Mallinckrodt plc), previously known as MNK-795, for the management of acute pain severe enough to require opioid treatment, and for patients for whom alternative treatment options are ineffective, not tolerated, or would otherwise be inadequate. The drug…
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved another once-daily extended-release formulation of topiramate (Qudexy XR, Upsher-Smith Laboratories Inc), the company announced. It is indicated as initial monotherapy in patients 10 years of age or older with partial-onset seizures or primary tonic-clonic seizures, and also approved as adjunctive therapy in patients 2 years of…
A headband delivering electrical nerve stimulation can prevent onset of migraine headaches and can be marketed for that purpose in the U.S., the FDA said Tuesday. Called Cefaly, the Belgian-made device is the first to win FDA approval for migraine prevention and is also the first transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) system OK’d for any…
DMC Among First to Implant New Device for Irregular Heartbeats The Detroit Medical Center is among the first hospitals in the world to implant a new cardiac monitoring device used to diagnose and monitor irregular heartbeats with hopes of possibly thwarting strokes or other heart ailments. “The device revolutionizes the whole clinical approach to the…
Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs) What are angiotensin receptor blockers, and how do they work? Angiotensin II is a very potent chemical that causes muscles surrounding blood vessels to contract, thereby narrowing blood vessels. This narrowing increases the pressure within the vessels and can cause high blood pressure (hypertension). Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) are…
What are ACE inhibitors, and how do they work? Angiotensin II is a very potent chemical produced by the body that causes the muscles surrounding blood vessels to contract, thereby narrowing the vessels. The narrowing of the vessels increases the pressure within the vessels causing increases in blood pressure (hypertension). Angiotensin II is formed from…
The number of people who present to emergency departments with dizziness is increasing, as is the percentage of emergency department visits resulting from dizziness, according to research presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association. Benign positional vertigo is one of the major causes of dizziness, yet clinicians are administering a proven…
Surgery in older patients with epilepsy has the potential to improve overall health and quality of life, as well as provide a favorable seizure outcome, according to a study presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society. Investigators at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), reviewed the records of 10 patients…
A report on long-term outcomes in patients treated with a newly approved electrical therapy for refractory seizures is among the highlights at this year’s American Epilepsy Society annual meeting here. Also on tap: studies of a new form of laser surgery for seizure ablation, a wearable seizure detector, and a device for home monitoring of…
Infants and toddlers with the Alzheimer’s disease-associated APOE4 genotype already showed distinctive patterns of brain structure relative to other young children, researchers said. MRI scans carried out in 60 normally developing children, age 2 to 25 months, who carried the APOE epsilon-4 allele, showed smaller volumes of gray matter and and lower white matter myelin…
RNS for Epilepsy Has Long-Term Benefits More than half of epilepsy patients treated with the recently approved responsive neurostimulation device (RNS) had reductions of 50% from baseline in seizure frequency lasting for up to 80 months, researchers reported here. Among 250 participants in the pivotal trial of the implanted RNS System neurostimulator, approved last month…