Pulses News and Research

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Two minutes of magnetic stimulation can change your brain for an hour

A couple of minutes is all it takes to ‘knock out’ bits of your brain for an hour, according to a new study by a University College London (UCL) team.

19 Jan 2005

U.S. patent granted for laser pulse technology

Biolase Technology today announced that it has been granted a new U.S. patent protecting key areas related to its laser pulse technology.

13 Dec 2004

Noninvasive test of blood flow response may reveal early coronary disease

Chest pain patients who have abnormal coronary blood vessel function also have less responsive blood vessels in their fingertips, suggesting that a type of fingertip probe could become a useful screening tool, according to a new study in the Dec. 7, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

8 Dec 2004

Researchers step closer to cure for common childhood cancer

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant disease caused by the abnormal growth and development of white blood cells (WBC) in the bone marrow and blood. ALL is the most common cancer occurring in children with an annual rate of approximately 30 to 40 new cases per million.

5 Dec 2004

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat major depression

Psychiatrists at Rush University Medical Center are testing a noninvasive technique that uses repeated short bursts of magnetic energy to stimulate nerve cells in the brain to treat major depression.

20 Nov 2004

Channeling through plasma to accelerate bright beams for science and medicine

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have produced high quality electron beams in an accelerating structure of only a few millimeters long.

4 Nov 2004

Findings could lead to improvements in the next generation of implantable cardioverter defibrillators

For people who suffer from a rapid heartbeat condition called tachycardia, an implanted device can usually nudge the racing blood pump back into a normal rhythm by applying electrical pulses to the heart.

25 Oct 2004

Mild pulses of electrical energy just as effective as more powerful and painful shocks to interrupt life-threatening rapid heartbeats

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a fast heartbeat originating in the heart’s ventricle chamber and can be life-threatening. VT is often treated with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a device that delivers an electrical shock to restore an irregular heart rhythm.

22 Oct 2004

Collaborative research will help bring hope to Americans who are losing their sight to degenerative retinal diseases

A collaborative research and development agreement signed today between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Second Sight LLC will help bring hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans who are losing their sight to degenerative retinal diseases.

18 Oct 2004

Portion of the brain devoted to vision may play a prominent role in processing the spoken word in blind people

The findings yield important information about the brain's ability to compensate for lost function. The study appears in the October 3, 2004 online issue of Nature Neuroscience1 and in the journal's November issue.

4 Oct 2004

Majority of LASIK recipients are happy with the results

The majority of the million plus people having LASIK each year to correct their vision are happy with the results, according to a 15-year literature review that indicates most reasons for discontent could be resolved with more patient education before surgery.

18 Aug 2004

Step closer to unravelling the mystery of medically unexplained pain such as chronic low back pain

Researchers are one step closer to unravelling the mystery of medically unexplained pain such as chronic low back pain, which continues to baffle doctors.

9 Aug 2004

$Surgeons implant a new investigational neurostimulator in a patient with medically refractory epilepsy$

Surgeons implant a new investigational neurostimulator in a patient with medically refractory epilepsy

Neurosurgeons at Rush University Medical Center are the first in Chicago to implant a new investigational neurostimulator in a patient with medically refractory epilepsy.

5 Aug 2004

Epilepsy, new therapeutic possibilities

To date epilepsy research has mainly concentrated on the transmission of the nerve cell signals to what are known as the synapses.

23 Jul 2004

Positron emission tomography offers a better way to observe the damage that strokes and neurodegenerative diseases wreak on brain cells

A laser-based microscopy technique may have settled a long-standing debate among neuroscientists about how brain cells process energy

2 Jul 2004

Sex hormones alter the development of certain brain structures during puberty

The results, in press with NeuroImage, show that sex hormones alter the development of certain brain structures during puberty and that these effects persist into adulthood.

29 Jun 2004

HERCULES laser could revolutionize the way cancer is treated

University of Michigan researchers recently produced what is believed to be the highest-intensity laser pulse ever obtained.

26 Jun 2004

Primitive part of the brain plays a role in processing visual information unconsciously

Temporary rapidly induced blindness has provided evidence that an older, primitive part of the brain plays a role in processing visual information unconsciously.

23 Jun 2004

Ultrasound technology to treat cancer

Ultrasound scans might be most familiar for getting a peek at a developing fetus, but the technology could also be used to treat cancer. A partnership between UC Davis, Siemens Medical Systems and ImaRx Inc., funded by a National Cancer Institute grant, will study ways to deliver drugs to tumors using focused ultrasound.

17 Jun 2004

Pulsed dye laser therapy not effective in treating acne

Unfortunately, there also appears to be no benefit, at least with one type of laser treatment called pulsed dye laser therapy, according to new research from the University of Michigan Health System.

16 Jun 2004