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Botox decreases pain and intensity of spasticity following a stroke

Final results from a multi-center study shows that repeated treatments of botulinum toxin type A (BoNTA or Botox?) over one year is well tolerated and results in a significant decrease in spasticity, pain frequency and average pain intensity in upper limbs following stroke, according to research from a neurologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

4 May 2007

Identifying cardiorespiratory neurocircuitry involved in central command during exercise in humans

For almost one hundred years the brain's ,central command, system , whose charge includes controlling the body's cardiorespiratory response to exercise , has been pursued. Animal experiments and functional imaging studies have provided clues to the location of this system, but the underlying electrophysiological activity has never been measured.

30 Apr 2007

Intrathecal Baclofen for spasticity-related pain in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

An estimated 5,600 people in the United States are diagnosed every year with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and as many as 30,000 Americans have the disease at any given time.

17 Apr 2007

Costs due to complications from preterm birth are staggering

In Canada, outlays for specialized care of surviving preterm infants are estimated to be almost $2 billion per year.

2 Apr 2007

African Americans may be at higher risk of heart failure because of racial variations in heart muscle's pumping ability

Scientists have known for nearly a decade that African Americans have higher rates of hospitalization for heart failure than other major U.S. racial or ethnic groups, but until now they have had limited information other than socio-economic and demographic characteristics to explain why this is so.

2 Apr 2007

Long periods of bed rest harmful to health of pregnant women

Studies by NASA scientists, who used bed rest to simulate weightlessness in space, found that complete immobility during a long period of time can cause degeneration of person's musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.

22 Mar 2007

Psychological depression contributes to worse medical outcomes for patients with heart failure

Heart failure, also known as congestive heart failure, is marked by the inability of the heart muscle to pump enough oxygen and nutrients in the blood to the body's tissues.

27 Feb 2007

Smart bladder pacemaker

Duke University biomedical engineering researchers have moved a step closer to a "smart bladder pacemaker" that might one day restore bladder control in patients with spinal cord injury or neurological disease.

18 Feb 2007

Botox could fix your knees as well as your wrinkles

The preliminary results of a new study have found that Botox, better known for getting rid of wrinkles, significantly reduced severe pain from osteoarthritis of the knee and also improved the knee's function.

15 Nov 2006

New gold standard of care for overactive bladder

A major clinical trial finds that a combination of two common medications -- tolterodine (Detrol LA) and tamsulosin (Flomax) -- works better than either drug alone for men struggling with lower urinary tract symptoms, including tough-to-treat overactive bladder (OAB).

14 Nov 2006

Muscle protein myosin VI involved in the development of prostate cancer

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have for the first time implicated the muscle protein myosin VI in the development of prostate cancer and its spread.

8 Nov 2006

Computer model reveals a central "road" in the human stomach

A computer model or "virtual stomach" revealed a central "road" in the human stomach, dubbed the Magenstrasse, that could explain why pharmaceuticals sometimes have a large variability in drug activation times, according to a team creating computer simulations of stomach contractions.

20 Sep 2006