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.

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

UnitedHealthcare to donate $1.95 million for Walking Paths Program

UnitedHealthcare is committing $1.95 million over three years to the American Heart Association to help establish walking paths throughout the country, with a goal of 150 new paths in the first year. It will also fund enhanced online walking resources available on the American Heart Association's walking paths website.

19 Aug 2010

Researchers participate in Alzheimer's Breakthrough Ride to urge Congress make the disease a national priority

This summer, more than 55 researchers participating in the Alzheimer's Breakthrough Ride are cycling relay-style across the country, collecting petition signatures asking Congress to make Alzheimer's disease a national priority. The public response to the petition has been so overwhelming that as the Alzheimer's Breakthrough Riders hit the halfway point in their 67-day route from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. on August 18, they are already more than 80% of the way to their goal of 50,000 signatures.

18 Aug 2010

New research explores effects of radiation on human bone after stereotactic radiosurgery

New research holds promise for the thousands of people whose cancer has spread to their bones.A common treatment for such patients is radiation surgery even though very little is known about radiosurgery's impact on bone strength, says Edmond Richer, associate professor of engineering at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

18 Aug 2010

Consortium on Aging created at The University of Texas Health Science Center

To meet the escalating patient care, research and healthcare education needs for a rapidly aging population, a university-wide Consortium on Aging has been established at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

18 Aug 2010

Lilly to halt development of potential Alzheimer's disease drug semagacestat

Eli Lilly and Company will halt development of semagacestat, a gamma secretase inhibitor being studied as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease, because preliminary results from two ongoing long-term Phase III studies showed it did not slow disease progression and was associated with worsening of clinical measures of cognition and the ability to perform activities of daily living.

18 Aug 2010

Moderate wine consumption associated with better cognitive performance

A large prospective study of 5033 men and women in the Troms- Study in northern Norway has reported that moderate wine consumption is independently associated with better performance on cognitive tests. The subjects (average age 58 and free of stroke) were followed over 7 years during which they were tested with a range of cognitive function tests.

18 Aug 2010

Dysphagia impacts length of hospital stay and prognosis

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that hospitalized patients with dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, averaged a 40 percent longer hospital stay than patients without the condition. They also had a generally poorer prognosis. The research is published in the August issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

18 Aug 2010

NIH awards Brain Plasticity $3.65M to improve cognitive function in people with schizophrenia

Brain Plasticity Inc., a new technology incubator dedicated to the discovery and development of novel technologies that harness the basic principles of brain plasticity to improve the lives of people with neurological and psychiatric disorders, was recently awarded $3.65 million dollars in two separate grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

18 Aug 2010

Natick VNA offers checklist to help patients make informed choice of home health care provider

Home from the hospital already? As stays for hospital patients grow progressively shorter, even for procedures as serious as repairing a brain aneurysm or inserting a pacemaker, patients' need for highly skilled nursing care at home is growing. Indeed, every week, thousands of these patients are referred to home health care services.

17 Aug 2010

Human induced pluripotent stem cells help to treat Parkinson’s disease: Research

Researchers at the Buck Institute for Age Research have successfully used human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to treat rodents afflicted with Parkinson's Disease (PD). The research, which validates a scalable protocol that the same group had previously developed, can be used to manufacture the type of neurons needed to treat the disease and paves the way for the use of iPSC's in various biomedical applications. Results of the research, from the laboratory of Buck faculty Xianmin Zeng, Ph.D., are published August 16, 2010 in the on-line edition of the journal Stem Cells.

17 Aug 2010