Ischemic Stroke Guidelines released at the end of January 2013. These guidelines were put together by an expert panel and touch on many aspects of acute stroke care, with a focus on ischemic stroke. The guidelines include dozens of recommendations. I am not going to talk about all of them today, but I would like…
Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (DBS) offers benefits earlier in the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD), before the appearance of severe disabling motor complications, according to results of a randomized controlled trial. In a group of patients with relatively mild early motor complications of PD, subthalamic stimulation plus medical therapy was superior to medical therapy…
Regular exercise reduces the development of painful diabetic neuropathy in animals—apparently related to increased expression of a protective substance called “heat shock protein” 72 (Hsp72), reports an experimental study in the February issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS). The observations add to previous studies suggesting that “progressive…
The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease is expected to triple in the next 40 years, according to a new study published in the February 6, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “This increase is due to an aging baby boom generation. It will place a huge…
New endoscopic spine surgery in Michigan for disc herniation and/or spinal stenosis. Dr Zamorano and her team are the first and only performing this technique in MI. The Michigan Brain and Spine Surgery Center is the first and only practice in Michigan offering the transforaminal endoscopic approach for discetomy and foraminotomy. This minimally invasive technique…
Twenty-seven percent of mTBI patients with a normal CT scan showed evidence of abnormalities on brain MRI. MRI may be better than CT scans at predicting whether patients with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) are likely to have persistent neurologic problems, according to the results of a clinical trial published in the December 2012 Annals…
‘Brain pacemakers’ trialled as way of staving off memory loss from Alzheimer’s disease IT HAS the makings of a science fiction movie: Zap someone’s brain with mild jolts of electricity to try to stave off the creeping memory loss of Alzheimer’s disease. And it’s not easy. Holes are drilled into the patient’s skull so tiny…
In the next several decades the number of Alzheimer’s patients will continue to dramatically increase. Various teams of researchers worldwide are feverishly investigating precisely how the illness develops. Inflammation as a New Therapeutic Approach For Alzheimer’s Disease A team of scientists under the guidance of the University of Bonn and University of Massachusetts (USA) and…
Three-fourths of patients with Alzheimer’s disease or frontal-lobe degeneration had MRI-detected biomarker levels that correlated with the diagnoses, suggesting MRI has potential as a screening tool for the conditions, investigators reported. MRI-predicted values for total tau and β-amyloid ratio (tt/Aβ) in gray matter correctly pinpointed the diagnosis in 75% of patients with genetically or neuropathologically…
For the very first times, surgeons at Johns Hopkins have used a brain-implanted pacemaker device to try to slow memory loss in a patient suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s. So far there’s only one patient with a memory-saving zapper, but a second is on the way along with about 40 others over the…
By: SHARON WORCESTER, Clinical Neurology News Digital Network The implantation of subdural electrodes for the treatment of intractable epilepsy is beneficial, but requires careful surveillance during the monitoring period, according to findings from a study of 91 consecutive patients. This is especially true for those who undergo large subdural grid placement, as these patients have…
A mutation found in about one in 200 Icelanders older than 85 raised the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease threefold, researchers said. The mutation, in an immunoregulatory gene known as TREM2, was more common in Alzheimer’s disease patients than in the general 85-and-older population in Iceland with an odds ratio of 2.91 (95% CI 2.09…