Monthly Archives: February 2012

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 ANGELES CITY -- The move of Representative Carmelo Lazatin (1st district, Pampanga) to establish a stem cell center in the Philippines has garnered the support of the Catanduanes Provincial Board. The measure (House Bill 5287) entitled “An Act Establishing Stem Cell Technology” seeks to establish a stem cell center in the Philippines that would strengthen research on the latest medical technology. Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos. This latest technology is a “major breakthrough in combating deadly diseases,” said the Catanduanes Provincial Board, which recently passed a resolution in support of the bill. The resolution, a copy of which was forwarded to Lazatin’s office, was approved by acting Vice Governor Nel Asanza and Board Members Rafael Zuniega, Edwin Tanael, Shirley Abundo, Jose Romeo Francisco, Roger Pereyra, Marilyn Tatel and Lemuel Surtida. The Catanduanes Provincial Board said stem cell technology offers hope of effective treatment of malignant and non-malignant diseases such as cancer, heart attacks and other cardio-vascular anomalies. It said the establishment of a stem cell research and storage center in the country would be a great help to unfortunate Filipinos who cannot afford expensive treatment, as well as in promoting … Continue reading →

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Treating stroke patients with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow appears to safely help them regain some of their lost abilities, two small new studies suggest. Indian researchers observed mixed results in the extent of stroke patients' improvements, with one study showing marked gains in daily activities, such as feeding, dressing and movement, and the other study noting these improvements to be statistically insignificant. But patients seemed to safely tolerate the treatments in both experiments with no ill effects, study authors said. "The results are encouraging to know but we need a larger, randomized study for more definitive conclusions," said Dr. Rohit Bhatia, a professor of neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, and author of one of the studies. "Many questions -- like timing of transplantation, type of cells, mode of transplantation, dosage [and] long-term safety -- need answers before it can be taken from bench to bedside." The studies are scheduled to be presented Wednesday and Thursday at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting in New Orleans. Stem cells -- unspecialized cells from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood or human embryos that can change into … Continue reading →

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27-01-2012 11:22 Just before Christmas, the story of a 9-year-old autistic boy from Kentucky began to gain attention both on and offline. The interest was sparked when Christopher Baker's mother, Sandra Baker, found her son immersed in a bag at school. "It wasn't just his body down in it and his head out, his whole body was down inside the bag," she told WebProNews. As she explained, the school had called and asked her to come and get her son because he was "bouncing off the walls." When she arrived and saw what had happened, she was outraged and took the story to local news outlets. Lydia Brown, an autistic college student at Georgetown University, saw the story and decided to create a petition on Change.org. The petition, which has received over 180000 signatures already, calls for the school to take action against the teacher involved as well as comprehensive training for all school personnel. However, as with many viral stories, the Christopher Baker case has generated a fair share of controversy. Some people from the autism community have spoken out in defense of the school saying that therapy bags are often used for treating autistic individuals. Another debatable issue … Continue reading →

This isn't just an academic debate: By rewriting autism's definition, the American Psychiatric Association will affect services for thousands. Everyone, now, has something to say about autism. While TV shows, such as Touch, portray autistic children as possessing superhuman powers, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is busy revising its definition of the disorder to focus on only the most affected individuals. Under their new revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS), the tome that describes and codes psychiatric issues ranging from autism to substance abuse to schizophrenia, people with higher functioning autism, sometimes called PDD or Aspergers or simply high functioning autism, could lose the autistic label. The new DSM V definition, which reads like a Dim Sum menu of dysfunction, states that an autistic person must have three deficits in social communication, show two out of four patterns of repetitive behavior, and begin to display deficits in childhood. Together, these deficits must impair everyday life. The previous definition in DSM IV had more options on its menu and would include kids whose issues were lumped in one area. The new definition also adds language that would only apply to the most severely affected individuals. It's no longer … Continue reading →

NEW ORLEANS, Feb. 1, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Three stroke researchers with significant contributions to understanding stroke; two "new investigators" and an emergency medicine researcher will be honored by the American Stroke Association at the International Stroke Conference 2012. Wolf-Dieter Heiss, M.D., emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research and emeritus chairman of the Department of Neurology at the University of Cologne in Germany will be honored for his lifetime contributions to the investigation, management, mentorship and community service in the basic or clinical stroke field. He will be given the David G. Sherman Lecture Award. Gregory J. del Zoppo, M.D., a professor of medicine (in hematology) at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle will receive the Thomas Willis Award for basic science investigations and management of stroke. Jeffrey L. Saver, M.D., professor of neurology at the University of California-Los Angeles' Geffen School of Medicine and director of the UCLA Stroke Center, will receive the William Feinberg Award for Excellence in Clinical Stroke for ongoing contributions to clinical science investigation and management of stroke. Amytis Towfighi, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and Chair of the … Continue reading →