Neurology News and Research

Latest Neurology News and Research

HIV infection causes premature aging of the brain

HIV infection or the treatments used to control it are prematurely aging the brain, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California-San Diego have found.

22 Jan 2010

Neuralstem announces treatment of first ALS patient with spinal cord stem cells

Neuralstem, Inc. announced that the first ALS patient was treated with its spinal cord stem cells yesterday at the Emory ALS Center at Emory University, in Atlanta, GA. A total of up to 18 patients is planned to be treated in this first U.S. clinical trial to evaluate human neural stem cells for the treatment of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease). ALS affects roughly 30,000 people in the U.S., with about 5,600 new diagnoses per year, according to the ALS Association.

21 Jan 2010

Results of two pivotal Phase III clinical trials with oral FTY720 published

Results of the TRANSFORMS and FREEDOMS studies, the two pivotal Phase III clinical trials with oral FTY720 (fingolimod), have been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, providing comprehensive evidence to support the efficacy and safety profile of this first-in-class therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS).

21 Jan 2010

Natural grass/cleat combination lowers strain and less likely to cause ACL injury

Athletes put less strain on their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while making a cut on a natural grass surface while wearing a cleat.

21 Jan 2010

EMD Serono announces results from CLARITY Phase III trial in MS patients

EMD Serono, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, announced today the online publication of the results from the CLARITY Phase III trial using Cladribine Tablets (EMD Serono's proprietary investigational oral formulation of cladribine) in The New England Journal of Medicine. The CLARITY study was a two-year (96-week), randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III trial of Cladribine Tablets in 1,326 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS).

21 Jan 2010

Ipsen enters into partnership agreement with Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals

Ipsen and Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (Inspiration) today announced that they have entered into a partnership to create a world leading hemophilia franchise. The partnership is designed to leverage combined expertise and resources to advance a broad portfolio of recombinant proteins, which address all major hemophilia disorders in a unique way by focusing on two significant unmet needs: wider access to treatment with coagulation factors and treatment for inhibitor complications.

21 Jan 2010

New computational model helps understand how dopamine medications affect non-motor functions

A new brain-based computational model is helping to understand how Parkinson's disease and dopamine medications-used to treat motor symptoms caused by the disease- can affect learning and attention.

21 Jan 2010

Research shows controlled breathing can reduce pain

Research performed by a scientist at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center has shown that controlled breathing at a slowed rate can significantly reduce feelings of pain.

21 Jan 2010

Johns Hopkins neurologist asks leaders to question 'futile and expensive' care in terminally ill patients

Acknowledging that the idea of rationing health care, particularly at the end of life, may incite too much vitriol to get much rational consideration, a Johns Hopkins emeritus professor of neurology called for the start of a discussion anyway, with an opinion piece featured in this month's issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

20 Jan 2010

Hospital for Special Surgery helps Haiti victims

A team of anesthesiologists, nurses and orthopedic trauma surgeons from Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan headed for Haiti on Friday and have been performing surgery and tending to those impacted by the earthquake ever since.

20 Jan 2010

Three hospitals selected as recipients of the 2009 DVTeamCare Hospital Award

The North American Thrombosis Forum (NATF), in coordination with Eisai Inc., announced today that three hospitals have been selected as recipients of the 2009 DVTeamCare Hospital Award. This new award was established by Eisai to recognize hospitals that have made a significant commitment to preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and its potentially fatal complications, including pulmonary embolism (PE).

20 Jan 2010

Endo Pharmaceuticals' partners receive Paragraph IV Certification Notice regarding LIDODERM

Endo Pharmaceuticals announced today that its partners, Teikoku Seiyaku Co., Ltd. and Teikoku Pharma USA, Inc. have received a Paragraph IV Certification Notice from Watson Laboratories, Inc. advising of the filing of an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for a generic version of LIDODERM® (lidocaine topical patch 5%).

20 Jan 2010

New research at Rhode Island Hospital identifies a treatment for glioblastomas

New research at Rhode Island Hospital has identified a treatment in animal models for glioblastomas - deadly brain tumors which, once diagnosed, offer a poor prognosis and relatively short life expectancy.

20 Jan 2010

Accellent reports preliminary financial information for fiscal fourth-quarter ended December 31, 2009

Accellent Inc. (the “Company”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Accellent Holdings Corp. (“Accellent”), today announced certain preliminary financial information for its fiscal fourth quarter and the full year ended December 31, 2009.

19 Jan 2010

Accellent to refinance its existing senior secured credit facilities

Accellent Inc. announced today that it has adopted a plan to refinance (the "Refinancing") its existing senior secured credit facilities and replace them with indebtedness that has longer-dated maturities. The plan, which has been unanimously approved by the Company's Board of Directors, would strengthen the Company’s capital structure by extending nearer term maturities such that the Company has no maturities until November 2013.

19 Jan 2010

Cognitive fluctuations more likely to occur in older persons with Alzheimer's disease

Cognitive fluctuations, or episodes when train of thought temporarily is lost, are more likely to occur in older persons who are developing Alzheimer's disease than in their healthy peers, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

19 Jan 2010

People with "mental lapses" more likely to have Alzheimer's disease

Older people who have "mental lapses," or times when their thinking seems disorganized or illogical or when they stare into space, may be more likely to have Alzheimer's disease than people who do not have these lapses, according to a study published in the January 19, 2010, print issue of Neurology-, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

19 Jan 2010

Neurosurgical journals influence neurosurgeons and their patients

A compendium of articles in the Journal of Neurosurgery (JNS) provides evidence that specialty medical journals are not only an invaluable resource to physicians and researchers, but to the media and public. Clinical and basic science papers do not have to be published in large, high-impact publications to garner attention, and in fact when it comes to specialized areas of medicine such as neurosurgery, publications devoted to the subspecialty produce many citation classics. "Citation classic" is a term given to articles that have been cited more than 400 times.

18 Jan 2010

Dopamine replacement therapy causes brain dysfunction in patients with Parkinson disease, study says

People with Parkinson's Disease are more likely to display abnormal social behaviour and make poor decisions in ambiguous circumstances if they are pathological gamblers, according to research in the January issue of the European Journal of Neurology.

18 Jan 2010

New genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease identified

An international team of doctors and human geneticists has identified a new genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease. The institutions involved in the study were the Institute of Human Genetics of Helmholtz Zentrum München and Technische Universität München, the Neurological Clinic of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU) and the Mitochondrial Research Group of Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

18 Jan 2010