Coma News and Research

RSS

LDLT effective for treating patients suffering from acute liver failure

When patients develop acute liver failure, severe complications arise rapidly after the first signs of liver disease, and patients' health can deteriorate rapidly. New research published in the American Journal of Transplantation indicates that emergency evaluations of living liver donors can be conducted safely to allow acute liver failure patients to undergo transplantation before their condition worsens.

19 Mar 2015

Blood group O provides protection against severe malaria

It has long been known that people with blood type O are protected from dying of severe malaria. In a study published in Nature Medicine, a team of Scandinavian scientists explains the mechanisms behind the protection that blood type O provides, and suggest that the selective pressure imposed by malaria may contribute to the variable global distribution of ABO blood groups in the human population.

10 Mar 2015

Investigators define prevalence, associated factors for vasospasm in children with brain injuries

Vasospasm, or severe narrowing of blood vessels, is a dangerous complication observed in children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. In a paper recently published in Critical Care Medicine, investigators at Nationwide Children's Hospital have further defined the prevalence, associated factors and time course for vasospasm in children with these brain injuries.

25 Feb 2015

Virginia Tech biochemists identify potential drug target against sleeping sickness

Virginia Tech biochemists are trying to deliver a stern wake-up call to the parasite that causes sleeping sickness.

24 Feb 2015

DPP-4 inhibitors effective against low blood sugar levels

DPP-4 inhibitors are a group of drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes that lower high blood sugar levels by stimulating insulin production in the body. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have now discovered that DPP-4 inhibitors are also effective against low blood sugar levels.

23 Feb 2015

UBMD physician discusses the dangers of hypothermia

The arctic cold snap affecting the Midwest and the Northeast this weekend should not be taken lightly, says David Holmes, MD, clinical associate professor of family medicine in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

17 Feb 2015

Dip a Stick test provides accurate way to detect signs of diabetes

Allie Beatty knows all too well that early detection of diabetes can significantly reduce the risk of additional complications.

16 Feb 2015

Researchers identify molecular pathways that could lead to new therapeutic targets for cerebral malaria

A drug already approved for treating other diseases may be useful as a treatment for cerebral malaria, according to researchers at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. They discovered a novel link between food intake during the early stages of infection and the outcome of the disease, identifying two molecular pathways that could serve as new targets for treatment.

30 Jan 2015

Voices of loved ones telling familiar stories can help awaken unconscious brain, speed coma recovery

"Can he hear me?" family members are desperate to know when a loved one with a traumatic brain injury is in a coma.

23 Jan 2015

Mount Sinai study measures ability of artificial pancreas in preventing hypoglycemia in T1D patients

A newly launched clinical research study at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is examining whether an artificial pancreas (AP) can prevent too low blood sugar levels or hypoglycemia in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) as they sleep. People fast as they sleep and nighttime hypoglycemia can cause seizures, and coma or death in rare cases, among the more than three million Americans with type 1 diabetes.

22 Jan 2015

GlucoMen announces launch of innovative new way to better manage diabetes

GlucoMen are delighted to announce the launch of an innovative new way for people with diabetes to manage their condition better, with the new GlucoMen Areo blood glucose meter.

11 Dec 2014

Amgen's XGEVA (denosumab) receives FDA approval for treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy

Amgen today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new indication for XGEVA (denosumab) for the treatment of hypercalcemia of malignancy (HCM) refractory to bisphosphonate therapy.

8 Dec 2014

External artificial pancreas improves glucose control, reduces hypoglycemia risk

The world's first clinical trial comparing three alternative treatments for type 1 diabetes was conducted in Montréal by researchers at the IRCM and the University of Montreal, led by endocrinologist Dr. Rémi Rabasa-Lhoret.

27 Nov 2014

Researchers take major step in fight against sleeping sickness

Researchers from Aarhus University have taken an important step in the fight against sleeping sickness, a disease that is a major problem in parts of Africa. According to the World Health Organization, the disease threatens approximately 60 million people and the treatment options are poor.

24 Nov 2014

Study shows how anesthesia affects cells in central nervous system

Anesthesia, long considered a blessing to patients and surgeons, has been a mystery for much of its 160-plus-year history in the operating room.

14 Nov 2014

Study offers unprecedented picture of how children frequently suffer head injuries

A study in which more than 43,000 children were evaluated for head trauma offers an unprecedented picture of how children most frequently suffer head injuries, report physicians at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.

13 Nov 2014

New study reveals promising path for rehabilitation of mild traumatic brain injury patients

As football players are learning, a violent blow to the head has the potential to cause mild to severe traumatic brain injury -- physical damage to the brain that can be debilitating, even fatal. The long-term effects run the gamut of human functioning, from trouble communicating to extensive cognitive and behavioral deterioration. To date, there is no effective medical or cognitive treatment for patients with traumatic brain injuries.

12 Nov 2014

Innovative program benefits incapacitated patients with no family or friends

A Regenstrief Institute and Eskenazi Health study reports on an innovative program that trains and supervises volunteers who act as advocates for adults and seniors who are unable to make their own decisions due to conditions like Alzheimer's disease or coma, but have no family or friends to help them.

11 Nov 2014

Common drug could become the future standard of care for HE patients

A common drug used to clean a person's bowels before a colonoscopy could become the future standard of care for patients with acute hepatic encephalopathy (HE), a mental disorientation problem that affects up to one in two cirrhosis patients.

4 Nov 2014

Anesthetics can cause long-term memory loss, reveal University of Toronto researchers

Researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine have shown why anesthetics can cause long-term memory loss, a discovery that can have serious implications for post-operative patients.