Stroke News and Research

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A stroke is a medical emergency. Strokes happen when blood flow to your brain stops. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain. The other kind, called hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. "Mini-strokes" or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.

Human umbilical cord blood cells appear to protect astrocytes from cell death: Research

Human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCB) used to treat cultured rat brain cells (astrocytes) deprived of oxygen appear to protect astrocytes from cell death after stroke-like damage, reports a team of researchers from the University of South Florida (USF) Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair.

25 Aug 2010

Medco to expand comp effectiveness reach

Modern Healthcare: "Pharmacy-benefit manager Medco Health Solutions' recent announcement of plans to acquire United BioSource Corp. for $730 million has many wondering if this will be the first of many companies seeking to extend their reach in the growing comparative effectiveness market.

25 Aug 2010

UT Southwestern University Hospital - St. Paul earns distinction as Primary Stroke Center

The Joint Commission has certified UT Southwestern University Hospital - St. Paul as a Primary Stroke Center, a distinction for hospitals fostering specialized stroke care for patients.

25 Aug 2010

Sleep deprivation and chronic disease

Sleep experts believe that sleep deprivation and inadequate sleep is becoming frightfully common and it can be bad for health in more ways than one. According to Harvard School of Medicine's Healthy Sleep site there is a real link between chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and depression and chronic lack of sleep.

24 Aug 2010

Special empowerment program to promote confidence in diabetic children

Teens are learning how to shred down the mountain and balance blood sugars in a special empowerment program called Riding on Insulin, taking place December 11, 2010, at The Canyons Resort in Park City. The day, led by Sean Busby,26 year old professional snowboarder with type 1 diabetes promotes courage and confidence and shows children with type 1 or type 2 they can overcome mental and physical challenges.

24 Aug 2010

Amerinet helps Wenatchee Valley Medical Center increase contract maximization by 30 to 50%

Wenatchee Valley Medical Center recently completed its third Amerinet Savings Roadmap which has helped the facility remove an average of 6 to 12 percent of supply chain expenses annually from its contract spend.

24 Aug 2010

Asian-Americans subgroups lack data on cardiovascular disease

Asians are the fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the U.S., but data on cardiovascular disease is lacking. There are marked differences in heart disease risk and occurrence among Asian-American subgroups, but data on these subgroups is limited, prompting the American Heart Association to call for more research on this fastest-growing racial/ethnic group in the U.S., according to a scientific statement published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

24 Aug 2010

APC dysfunction prevents synapse function required for learning, memory: Study

A clue to the causes of autism and mental retardation lies in the synapse, the tiny intercellular junction that rapidly transfers information from one neuron to the next. According to neuroscientists at Tufts University School of Medicine, with students from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts, a protein called APC plays a key role in synapse maturation, and APC dysfunction prevents the synapse function required for typical learning and memory.

23 Aug 2010

Novo Nordisk reaches exclusive agreement to market Vagifem 10 mcg

Novo Nordisk Inc. today announced that it has signed an exclusive agreement with Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc. to market Vagifem (estradiol vaginal tablets) 10 mcg. Under the terms of the agreement, Upsher-Smith will exclusively market Vagifem 10 mcg to physicians in the U.S. beginning August 2 through the company's existing field sales force.

23 Aug 2010

New diagnostic tool proves cost-effective in identifying rare genetic disorders

Mutations in a single gene can cause several types of developmental brain abnormalities that experts have traditionally considered different disorders. With support from the National Institutes of Health, researchers found those mutations through whole exome sequencing - a new gene scanning technology that cuts the cost and time of searching for rare mutations.

23 Aug 2010

Stent implanted in artery inside skull of 14-year-old boy to prevent stroke

University at Buffalo neurosurgeon Elad Levy, MD, implanted a stent in an artery inside the skull of a 14-year-old boy to prevent a stroke, a procedure thought to be the first conducted in an adolescent.

20 Aug 2010

Genetic architecture controlling growth of 'back-up' blood vessels uncovered

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have uncovered the genetic architecture controlling the growth of the collateral circulation - the "back-up" blood vessels that can provide oxygen to starved tissues in the event of a heart attack or stroke.

20 Aug 2010

Immunosuppressive therapy benefits necrotizing myopathy patients with novel autoantibody specificity

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have identified a subgroup of patients with necrotizing myopathy who have a novel autoantibody specificity that makes them potential candidates for immunosuppressive therapy. The complete study is published in the September issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, a journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

20 Aug 2010

Binge drinking increases cardiovascular disease risk: Research

If you have high blood pressure, binge drinking may dramatically raise your risk of stroke or heart-related death, according to a South Korean study reported in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

20 Aug 2010

The Center for Pediatric Dentistry opens in Seattle on September 1, 2010

At today's ribbon cutting ceremony, The Center for Pediatric Dentistry, created to address the growing epidemic of childhood dental disease, announced the grand opening of its facility on September 1, 2010. The Seattle-based institute is the first of its kind in the country, providing pediatric dental care, education for dentists and medical professionals, research, and policy under one roof.

20 Aug 2010

New ways to tackle diabetes

According to a new analysis from UK, a diet rich in green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of developing diabetes. The inference was drawn from six studies which looked into fruit and vegetable intake and found that only food including spinach and cabbage was found to have a significant positive effect. The findings were published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

19 Aug 2010

USPTO to issue reexamination certificate for Neuralstem's patent for neural stem cell technology

Neuralstem, Inc. announced that it received notification that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has upheld the patentability, without amendment, of all claims in U.S. Patent No. 5,753,506 and intends to issue a reexamination certificate in due course. This patent describes methods of culturing and expanding neural stem cells.

19 Aug 2010

New clues to molecular action of Alzheimer's drug memantine

Alzheimer's disease destroys brain cells and their connections (called synapses), causing memory loss and other cognitive problems that disrupt work, hobbies and daily life. Symptoms can be alleviated, in part, by the drug memantine (marketed in the United States as Namenda), which is currently FDA-approved to treat moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease and was, in part, developed by Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Del E. Web Center for Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham).

19 Aug 2010

24% more children with progeria discovered

Spectrum, a health and science communications firm, announced the results of a global awareness campaign that "found" 24 percent more children identified with a rare, fatal, and rapid aging disease called Progeria. The findings are being shared at a Centers for Disease Control national conference on health communications.

19 Aug 2010

Overweight, smoking and lack of exercise linked to frequent headaches in teens

Teens who are overweight, get little exercise or who smoke may be more likely to have frequent headaches and migraines than teens with none of these factors, according to a study published in the August 18, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Aug 2010