Paralysis News and Research

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Paralysis is the loss of muscle function in part of your body. It happens when something goes wrong with the way messages pass between your brain and muscles. Paralysis can be complete or partial. It can occur on one or both sides of your body. It can also occur in just one area, or it can be widespread. Paralysis of the lower half of your body, including both legs, is called paraplegia. Paralysis of the arms and legs is quadriplegia.

Pharmacyclics announces NDA for Xcytrin injection

Pharmacyclics, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has filed the company's New Drug Application (NDA) for Xcytrin (motexafin gadolinium) Injection.

24 Apr 2007

Potential therapeutic target for multiple sclerosis

Oregon Health & Science University neuroscientists are eyeing a protein as a potential therapeutic target for multiple sclerosis because de-activating it protects nerve fibers from damage.

24 Apr 2007

New direction for therapies to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Researchers from The Ludwig Institute and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have discovered that when motor neurons damaged by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig?s disease, inappropriately send the wrong signal, immune cells react by killing the messenger.

24 Apr 2007

Local corticosteroid injection for carpal tunnel syndrom

A single corticosteroid injection in the wrist can offer at least a month of relief to people suffering from severe carpal tunnel syndrome, according to an updated review of studies by Canadian researchers.

20 Apr 2007

New combined imaging promises insights into multiple sclerosis

Researchers have developed a way to use three types of microscopic imaging techniques simultaneously to analyze living tissue and learn more about the molecular mechanisms of multiple sclerosis, information that could help lead to earlier detection and new treatments.

18 Apr 2007

Cortical mapping helps brain tumor removal

In 2006, it was estimated that 18,820 new cases were diagnosed and 12,820 deaths were associated with malignant tumors of the brain and other parts of the central nervous system.

17 Apr 2007

Astrocytes may contribute to Lou Gehrig's disease

Two papers by Columbia and Harvard researchers report for the first time that astrocytes (the most abundant non-neuronal cells in the central nervous system), which carry a mutated gene known to cause some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS/Lou Gehrig's disease), induce motor neuron death.

16 Apr 2007

Eradicating polio a better option than extended control of the disease

Concerns about the high perceived costs of eradicating the relatively low number of polio cases worldwide have led to recent suggestions that it is time to shift from a goal of eradication to control—abandoning eradication and allowing wild poliovirus to continue to circulate, which proponents of control believe can sustain the low number of cases.

15 Apr 2007

A wavering commitment to polio eradication is not a good option!

Concerns about the high perceived costs of eradicating the relatively low number of polio cases worldwide have led to recent suggestions that it is time to shift from a goal of eradication to control-abandoning eradication and allowing wild poliovirus to continue to circulate, which proponents of control believe can sustain the low number of cases.

12 Apr 2007

New vaccine to prevent type-1 polio three times as effective as standard vaccine

The study found that each dose of the new monovalent oral poliovirus vaccine, known as mOPV1, protected 30% of susceptible children in northern India against paralytic poliomyelitis. The standard trivalent vaccine in the same setting protected just 11% of children per dose.

12 Apr 2007

Physician shortage in North America

Changes in emigration patterns of Canadian-educated physicians are not believed to have had a profound effect on the Canadian physician workforce; however, Phillips and colleagues report that, in 2006, 1 in 12 Canadian-educated physicians were practising in the US.

10 Apr 2007

Arsenic-based additive used in chicken feed may pose health risks to humans

Pets may not be the only organisms endangered by some food additives.

10 Apr 2007

Pharmacyclics undergoes 'file over protest' for Xcytrin NDA

Pharmacyclics, Inc. has announced its request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its New Drug Application (NDA) for Xcytrin (motexafin gadolinium) Injection be filed over protest.

5 Apr 2007

Need for a national database of epidural complications

Researchers have called for a national database to be set up to identify major complications arising from epidural pain relief after a small number of serious problems were identified during a six-year UK study, according to the April issue of Anaesthesia.

4 Apr 2007

New hope for a rabies cure

The appeal, by Rodney Willoughby, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics, appears in the April 2007 issue of Scientific American.

3 Apr 2007

Atorvastatin shows potential as a new treatment for spinal cord injuries

A multidisciplinary investigation led by Inderjit Singh, Ph.D, of the Medical University of South Carolina, has resulted in a new treatment of spinal cord injuries (SCI). The study investigates the efficacy of atorvastatin (AT), (i.e. Lipitor) as a treatment for spinal cord injuries following trauma.

22 Mar 2007

Treating sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure reduces incidence of stroke

Patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea who have significantly higher serum levels of inflammatory markers that serve as precursors to coronary artery disease, as well as lesions associated with silent brain infarction, have an elevated risk of stroke, according to a group of Japanese medical researchers.

19 Mar 2007

Translaminar technique reduces neck pain without significant risk of paralysis

In the largest series of patients to date, recent research shows that the translaminar approach to cervical spinal steroid injections can reduce neck pain in eighty-three percent of those treated.

5 Mar 2007

One billion battling with neurological disorders

According to a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO), neurological disorders ranging from migraines to epilepsy and dementia, affect up to 1 billion people worldwide and that number is destined to rise as populations age.

1 Mar 2007

Gardasil reaction report released

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) today released a new analysis of the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck's Gardasil) during the last six months of 2006.

21 Feb 2007