Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Children and adults with high-risk ALL benefit from novel, personalized cell therapy

Nearly 90 percent of children and adults with a highly aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia showed no evidence of cancer after receiving a novel, personalized cell therapy that reprograms a patient's immune system. In pilot studies of bioengineered T cells that attack leukemia, 24 of 27 patients (89%) experienced complete responses within 28 days after treatment. In all, 27 patients received the treatment--22 children treated at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and five adults treated at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

9 Dec 2013

Children with epilepsy at higher risk for mood and behavior disorders

Children with epilepsy are at high risk for depression, anxiety, and behavioral functioning disorders. Mood and behavior are known to change or improve in children following epilepsy surgery, but research is inconsistent concerning the extent of the change.

9 Dec 2013

Heptares starts HTL9936 Phase 1 study for improving cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients

Heptares Therapeutics, the leading GPCR structure-guided drug discovery and development company, announces that it has initiated a Phase 1 clinical study of HTL9936, the first fully selective muscarinic M1 receptor agonist to enter clinical development. HTL9936 is an orally available, small molecule drug candidate discovered using the Heptares GPCR structure-based drug design platform.

9 Dec 2013

Revised Clinical Practice Guidelines on management of HCV published by EASL

The European Association for the Study of the Liver today publishes their revised Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) on the management of hepatitis C virus infection. The EASL guidelines, which supersede the previous version published in 2011, are designed to help physicians and other healthcare providers optimise their management of patients with acute and chronic HCV.

9 Dec 2013

Atonomics reaches agreement to advance development of diagnostic test for lifestyle diseases

Atonomics announces today that it has entered into an agreement with Omron Healthcare, which will enable Atonomics to advance the development of the AtolyzerConsumer device for advanced diagnostic testing of lifestyle diseases in a consumer pharmacy setting. As part of the transaction Omron Healthcare is taking a minority equity stake in Atonomics.

9 Dec 2013

Gecko Biomedical announces closing of Series A financing round

Gecko Biomedical, a privately owned medical device company based in Paris that is developing novel biodegradable surgical wound closure solutions, announced the closing of a €8 million ($11m) Series A financing round. The financing was co-led by Omnes Capital and CM-CIC Capital Finance, and joined by CapDecisif Management.

9 Dec 2013

Study shows VEEG telemetry monitoring with early cessation of AED therapy is safe, effective

Patients with epilepsy often undergo evaluation by concurrent video and EEG monitoring (vEEG) for therapeutic planning, including possible epilepsy surgery. Seizures during monitoring increase the diagnostic yield and requires the withdrawal of anticonvulsant drugs (AEDs) to allow seizures to occur.

9 Dec 2013

Research findings suggest possible novel strategies to prevent SUDEP

Patients with epilepsy and, in particular, those with severe syndromic forms of the disorder, harbor a risk of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. Cardiac arrhythmias are a proposed cause. In a test of this theory, researchers have demonstrated that mice harboring a human SCN1A gene mutation that results in Dravet Syndrome, a severe and intractable genetic epilepsy, have electrical disturbances in the heart that culminate in ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death.

9 Dec 2013

Prolonged febrile seizures can affect pediatric patients

A long-standing hypothesis holds that prolonged febrile (fever induced) seizures, the most common form of childhood convulsive status epilepticus, cause mesial temporal sclerosis. CSE is a single seizure, or two or more seizures between which consciousness is not regained, lasting for more than 30 minutes.

9 Dec 2013

Viewpoints: Health law is here to stay; problems for Obamacare go beyond website; future 'doc shock'

For almost two months, the debacle of healthcare.gov allowed conservatives to live the life they always wanted. Health reform was a dismal failure; Obama would go down in history as a laughingstock; government can't do anything; viva Ayn Rand! ... while things are far from completely fixed, the crisis is clearly over. Obamacare will have millions of beneficiaries by the time open enrollment ends; it will add many more in the 2015 cycle. Health reform is pretty much irreversible at this point (Paul Krugman, 12/5).

9 Dec 2013

$Management of refractory convulsive status epilepticus varies at different medical centers$

Management of refractory convulsive status epilepticus varies at different medical centers

The management of refractory convulsive status epilepticus varies at different medical centers and from patient to patient. Rapid success in aborting these non-stop seizures is crucial as the risk of neurological damage is high and, though rare, may result in death depending on seizure duration. By pooling data and analyzing current RCSE management practices, researchers representing a multicenter network of tertiary referral hospitals in the U.S. conducted a study that could lead to improved treatment outcomes for potentially life-threatening seizures.

9 Dec 2013

MRI-guided SLA surgery proves safe and shows adequate efficacy for seizure control

MRI-Guided Stereotactic Laser Ablation of the hippocampus to control seizures in people with temporal lobe epilepsy may result in seizure control that approaches that from anterior temporal lobectory or selective amygdalohippocampectomy and better cognitive outcomes than any of the standard open resections, according to a study presented at the American Epilepsy Society's 67th Annual Meeting in Washington DC.

9 Dec 2013

Study demonstrates safety and efficacy of NeuroPace RNS System in adults with intractable seizures

Researchers present the findings from a 2-year multicenter randomized double blinded controlled clinical study and a 7 year long-term treatment study of the NeuroPace RNS System at the American Epilepsy Society's 67th Annual Meeting.

9 Dec 2013

Scientists identify important new genes for epilepsy

Scientists screening the DNA of large cohorts for known and suspected epilepsy associated genes are finding that, while some genes are implicated in discrete phenotypes or forms of epilepsy, other genes are implicated in a wider range of phenotypes. Although ion channel genes are a common cause of epilepsy, the researchers also report a significant number of epilepsy patients with mutations in non-ion channel genes. The studies have important implications for treatment, prognosis and risk counseling.

9 Dec 2013

Study: Uncontrolled epilepsy associated with higher healthcare utilization

Seizures in people with epilepsy are commonly treated with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) but 30-40 percent do not achieve adequate seizure control, predisposing them to severe health risks, impaired quality of life and higher healthcare costs.

9 Dec 2013

Underlying loss of awareness during partial seizures is same as deep sleep

Epilepsy patients with complex partial seizures have impaired consciousness during seizure episodes and typically have no memory of the event. However, the mechanisms of seizure unconsciousness are unclear.

9 Dec 2013

Researchers investigate effect of epilepsy surgery on patients lives

Resective surgery is an effective treatment for dug-resistant epilepsy. To investigate the effect of epilepsy surgery on patients lives, researchers from the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit conducted a long-term retrospective follow up of surgical patients and correlated post-surgical psychosocial outcomes with seizure outcome and brain area surgically treated.

9 Dec 2013

People lack knowledge about efficacy of HPV vaccine in preventing cervical cancer

Knowledge about the efficacy of the human papillomavirus vaccine in preventing cervical cancer was lacking in the majority of survey respondents for whom the information would be relevant, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

9 Dec 2013

Obamacare error rate means many may not be signed up for coverage

The administration said that 25 percent of people who signed up in October and November and 10 percent of Dec. enrollees could have errors in their forms.

9 Dec 2013

Janssen reports positive pivotal Phase 2 study data of siltuximab for Multicentric Castleman's Disease

Janssen Research & Development, LLC today announced positive results from a pivotal Phase 2 global registration study (MCD2001) suggesting siltuximab, an investigational compound, along with best supportive care, exhibited statistically significant efficacy and a tolerable safety profile compared with placebo and BSC in treating patients with the rare disorder Multicentric Castleman's Disease who are HIV-negative and human herpes virus 8-negative.

8 Dec 2013

Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Children and adults with high-risk ALL benefit from novel, personalized cell therapy

Children with epilepsy at higher risk for mood and behavior disorders

Heptares starts HTL9936 Phase 1 study for improving cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients

Revised Clinical Practice Guidelines on management of HCV published by EASL

Atonomics reaches agreement to advance development of diagnostic test for lifestyle diseases

Gecko Biomedical announces closing of Series A financing round

Study shows VEEG telemetry monitoring with early cessation of AED therapy is safe, effective

Research findings suggest possible novel strategies to prevent SUDEP

Prolonged febrile seizures can affect pediatric patients

Viewpoints: Health law is here to stay; problems for Obamacare go beyond website; future 'doc shock'

Management of refractory convulsive status epilepticus varies at different medical centers

MRI-guided SLA surgery proves safe and shows adequate efficacy for seizure control

Study demonstrates safety and efficacy of NeuroPace RNS System in adults with intractable seizures

Scientists identify important new genes for epilepsy

Study: Uncontrolled epilepsy associated with higher healthcare utilization

Underlying loss of awareness during partial seizures is same as deep sleep

Researchers investigate effect of epilepsy surgery on patients lives

People lack knowledge about efficacy of HPV vaccine in preventing cervical cancer

Obamacare error rate means many may not be signed up for coverage

Janssen reports positive pivotal Phase 2 study data of siltuximab for Multicentric Castleman's Disease

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Healthcare News and Research

Latest Healthcare News and Research

Industry Focus eBook - Cell & Gene Therapy (1st Edition) eBook

Advancing brain microphysiological systems (bMPS)

PhD researcher at LifeArc

Unveiling Hidden Potential: Organoids for Disease Modeling in Neuroscience Research

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