Encephalopathy News and Research

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Ammonia levels do not guide clinical management of hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients

The liver performs several critical functions including filtering blood, detoxifying chemicals and metabolizing drugs.

19 Nov 2019

Study finds lower levels of liver decompensation in pregnant women with cirrhosis

Data from a new study presented this week at The Liver Meeting – held by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and funded by the AASLD Foundation – found that less than two percent of pregnant women with cirrhosis had liver decompensation within one year of delivery, and their odds of decompensation is much lower than non-pregnant women with cirrhosis.

10 Nov 2019

Game-changing diagnostic test for prion diseases

Researchers have developed an effective way of testing for prion diseases, a group of fatal neurodegenerative illnesses caused by abnormally folded proteins.

8 Nov 2019

Natural language processing helps evaluate electronic messages from ESLD patients

Natural language processing, the technology that lets computers read, decipher, understand and make sense of human language, is the driving force behind internet search engines, email filters, digital assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, and language-to-language translation apps.

From Johns Hopkins Medicine 7 Nov 2019

Doctors report first death from fecal microbiota transplant

Details of an investigational study have emerged after a man died following a fecal microbiate transplant. The events prompted the FDA to set new safety guidelines for the practice.

31 Oct 2019

Some plant foods causing paralysis, death, in malnourished populations

There are a lot of plants eaten for food that may also contain toxins that harm the brain and the nervous system, when present in amounts that cross the limit of individual tolerance. This happens when such toxin-containing foods are the chief or only source of nutrition.

26 Oct 2019

Researchers receive $9.7 million NIH grant to study TBI and neurodegenerative diseases

An international team of experts led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Glasgow has been awarded a $9.7 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute for Aging to establish CONNECT-TBI--a program spanning 12 institutions which will study traumatic brain injury and related neurodegenerative diseases.

24 Oct 2019

Study finds no link between youth contact sports and cognitive, mental health problems

Adolescents who play contact sports, including football, are no more likely to experience cognitive impairment, depression or suicidal thoughts in early adulthood than their peers, suggests a new University of Colorado Boulder study of nearly 11,000 youth followed for 14 years.

21 Oct 2019

New test could detect abnormal forms of protein associated with tauopathies

National Institutes of Health scientists have developed an ultrasensitive new test to detect abnormal forms of the protein tau associated with uncommon types of neurodegenerative diseases called tauopathies.

16 Oct 2019

Suppressing brain immune cells might prevent or delay the onset of dementia

Messy tangles of a protein called tau can be found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease and some other neurodegenerative diseases. In Alzheimer's, the tangles coalesce just before tissue damage becomes visible in brain scans and people start to become forgetful and confused.

10 Oct 2019

Study shows relationship between duration of football played and CTE risk, severity

The risk and severity of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy increases with the number of years playing American football according to a new study that appears online in Annals of Neurology.

7 Oct 2019

Why granny’s herbs work to lower high blood pressure

A study from the University of California, Irvine, explains a hitherto unknown mechanism of action for bioactive molecules in commonly used plant-based folk medicines like fennel, camomile and lavender that are used to lower the blood pressure.

1 Oct 2019

Researchers aim to explore effects of age, gender on brain injury mechanics

Traumatic brain injury and chronic traumatic encephalopathy have become common in athletes who suffer repeated blows to the head. Most recently, former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski revealed that he had sustained about 20 concussions during his nine-year career in the National Football League.

21 Sep 2019

Abnormal gut bacteria linked to poor cognitive performance in vets with PTSD and cirrhosis

A study involving military veterans with PTSD and cirrhosis of the liver points to an abnormal mix of bacteria in the intestines as a possible driver of poor cognitive performance--and as a potential target for therapy.

13 Sep 2019

Scientists visualize protein tangles linked with dementia in patients’ brains after single head injury

Scientists have visualized for the first time protein 'tangles' associated with dementia in the brains of patients who have suffered a single head injury.

5 Sep 2019

Measles back in UK three years after elimination

The United Kingdom was declared to be free of measles infection three years back in 2016 by the World Health Organization (WHO). In a recent development, due to the increasing number of cases of measles among unvaccinated children, the WHO has declared that UK can no longer be called measles-free.

20 Aug 2019

Liver dysfunction provokes cerebral molecular disturbances in two weeks

The liver plays a vital role as a filter in the human body. But what happens when it malfunctions? Researchers from the Universities of Geneva and Lausanne, the Vaud University Hospital Centre, the Centre for Biomedical Imaging, the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne and the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland, teamed up to perform a detailed analysis of hepatic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage caused by chronic liver disease.

19 Aug 2019