Monthly Archives: May 2012

Edited by Simon D. Shorvon, Frederick Andermann, and Renzo Guerrini 790 pp, $195 New York, NY, Cambridge University Press, 2011 ISBN-13: 978-0521114479 It is no easy task to classify epileptic seizures and epilepsy etiologies, with a recent commentary citing 9 articles on the topic published in 2011 alone.1 Providing a cause of a patient's seizures is clearly a necessary component of any classification scheme. The commentary also notes the importance of precisely defining the etiology of epilepsy in an individual patient, given its implications for prognosis and treatment. In The Causes of Epilepsy: Common and Uncommon Causes in Adults and Children, editors Simon Shorvon, Frederick Andermann, and Renzo Guerrini have done an admirable job of creating an organized guidea self-described catalog of causesto assist with this call for precision. As defined in their introduction, the editors use the well-recognized section headings of idiopathic epilepsy and symptomatic epilepsy. An additional section discusses provoked epilepsies, which the authors propose as an additional category in their classification of epilepsy etiologies. The last section Follow this link: The Causes of Epilepsy: Common and Uncommon Causes in Adults and Children [Book and Media Reviews] … Continue reading →

50% of Patients Seizure-Free After Trying First Anti-Seizure Drug May 9, 2012 -- Half of all epilepsy patients who are initially started on one anti-seizure drug remain seizure-free for at least a year, a new study confirms. Among patients followed for as long as 26 years, initial response to drug treatments strongly predicted future seizure control. Yet less than 1% of patients who failed to respond to three anti-seizure drug regimens achieved adequate seizure control on subsequent drug treatments even though some were treated with as many as nine different drugs or drug combinations. The findings make it clear that epilepsy patients who are candidates for surgery or other non-drug treatments should be considered for these procedures earlier rather than later, says neurologist Patricia E. Penovich, MD, of the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Epilepsy Group in St. Paul. "These patients don't have to wait until they have failed five or six different drug regimens," she tells WebMD. "If their seizures are not controlled by the first few medications it is reasonable to consider surgery." Roughly 2.7 million Americans have epilepsy, and about 1 in 10 people will experience a seizure at some point in their lifetime, according to … Continue reading →

Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Annie Rahilly arahilly@unimelb.edu.au 61-390-355-380 University of Melbourne In a study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, Professor Kwan, who is also head of the clinical epilepsy program at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and an international authority in antiepileptic drug development, believes a pattern emerges in the early stages. "Our research shows a pattern based on how a person responds to initial treatment and specifically, to their first two courses of drug treatment," said Dr Kwan. For the study, 1,098 people from Scotland between the ages of nine and 93 with newly diagnosed epilepsy were followed for as long as 26 years after being given their first drug therapy. Participants were considered seizure-free if they had no seizures for at least a year without changes in their treatment. If they had further seizures, a second drug was chosen to be given alone or to be added to the first. If seizures continued, a third drug regimen was selected, and the process continued for up to nine drug regimens. The study found that 50 percent of the people were seizure-free after the first drug tried, … Continue reading →

Donations elusive Legislator confident of funding. Despite assurances during the Legislative session that major insurance companies and a bank would donate $1 million toward a new autism treatment pilot, the state has not yet received any money. That could halve one part of the program, set to begin this summer, at a time when a study of a small area in Utah indicated the state could have the highest autism rate in the nation. "As of right now there is no money," said Marc Babitz, director of the Division of Family Health and Preparedness at the Utah Department of Health. "I am not aware of one private donation." But Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, who sponsored the bill to create the pilot, says there is "no question" that money is on its way. "Weve been working with the entities this past week working out the details," she said. Expected donor Zions Bank did not immediately comment. Intermountain Healthcare says it plans to provide financial support although the details are still being finalized. The two-year pilot program is expected to pay for therapy for about 350 children between the ages of 2 and 6, through a combination of Medicaid, state and private … Continue reading →

Donations elusive Legislator confident of funding. Despite assurances during the Legislative session that major insurance companies and a bank would donate $1 million toward a new autism treatment pilot, the state has not yet received any money. That could halve one part of the program, set to begin this summer, at a time when a study of a small area in Utah indicated the state could have the highest autism rate in the nation. "As of right now there is no money," said Marc Babitz, director of the Division of Family Health and Preparedness at the Utah Department of Health. "I am not aware of one private donation." But Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland, who sponsored the bill to create the pilot, says there is "no question" that money is on its way. "Weve been working with the entities this past week working out the details," she said. Expected donor Zions Bank did not immediately comment. Intermountain Healthcare says it plans to provide financial support although the details are still being finalized. The two-year pilot program is expected to pay for therapy for about 350 children between the ages of 2 and 6, through a combination of Medicaid, state and private … Continue reading →

Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Stephanie Burns sburns@bmjgroup.com 44-020-738-36920 BMJ-British Medical Journal The relationship between executive dysfunction and post-stroke mortality: a population-based cohort study doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2011-000458 A simple drawing test can predict the long-term risk of dying after a first stroke among older men, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open. Despite treatment advances, stroke is still a leading cause of death and disability, with older age and impaired intellectual capacity (cognitive function) before a stroke associated with higher risks of death and disability afterwards. The research team wanted to see if there was a reliable way of finding out who might be most at risk of a stroke death, based on cognitive function. They analysed data from the Uppsala Longitudinal Study of Adult Men, which has been looking at different risk factors for heart disease and stroke in 2322 men since the age of 50. The current study is based on just under 1000 of these men who had not been diagnosed with stroke and whose intellectual capacity was assessed when they were aged between 65 and 75. This was done, using both the Trail Making Test, or TMT for short, … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9shgp3/international_stro) has announced the addition of GlobalData's new report "International Stroke Conference 2012 - Post-Conference Review and Analysis" to their offering. International Stroke Conference 2012 - Post-Conference Review and Analysis. The conference alert is an essential source of information and analysis on the emerging therapies and new disease management techniques. The annual meeting of the International Stroke Conference 2012 was held in New Orleans, the US, on February 1-3, 2012. This two and a half day conference provides a forum in which to present recent scientific work related to cerebrovascular disease. More than 1,000 abstract presentations, lectures and debates will be featured. Some of the topics covered in the conference include clinical categories such as diagnosis, acute non-endovascular treatment, in-hospital treatment, rehabilitation and recovery, pediatric stroke, prevention, community/risk factors, nursing, emergency medicine, outcomes, vascular biology, and vascular cognitive impairment. This report aims to cover some of the scientific presentations and articles released during the conference. Key Topics Covered: 1 List of Tables 2 International Stroke Conference 2012 - Pre-conference Highlights 2.1 Full Dose IV-tPA Followed by IA Therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke Does not Increase Morbidity or Mortality 2.2 Treatment of Acute Stroke in Patients … Continue reading →

Stroke concerns remain despite improved treatment figures 8:30am Wednesday 9th May 2012 in News By Barry Nelson, Health Editor COUNCILLORS said emergency stroke services have improved since a controversial reorganisation, but concerns remain about aspects of the new arrangements. Members of Darlington Borough Councils health and partnerships scrutiny committee were told that since the setting up of a centralised stroke treatment unit at the University Hospital of North Durham instead of a two centre service operating out of Darlington and Durham City more stroke patients were being treated more quickly. But councillors voiced concerns that some patients from the Darlington area suffering from suspected strokes were still being taken by ambulance to the Accident and Emergency department at the towns Memorial Hospital, even though the stroke unit there had closed. There was also concern about the lack of speech therapy for some patients after they had been transferred to Bishop Auckland General Hospital for rehabilitation. Hospital officials presented figures which showed that the percentage of suspected stroke patients admitted to a stroke unit within four hours of arrival had increased from 55 per cent to 90 per cent and the proportion of patients given clot-busting drugs had increased to between … Continue reading →

Public release date: 9-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Stephanie Burns sburns@bmjgroup.com 44-020-738-36920 BMJ-British Medical Journal Higher volume endovascular stroke centers have faster times to treatment, higher reperfusion rates and higher rates of good clinical outcomes Online First doi 10.1136/neurintsurg-2011-010245 Treatment is faster and outcomes are better at stroke centres dealing with a high volume of patients, finds research published online in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery. The authors base their findings on 442 patients treated with endovascular therapyclot busting treatment provided inside the brain via a catheter without the need for surgeryat nine specialist (tertiary) stroke centres between September 2009 and July 2011. All the patients, whose average age was 66, arrived at the centres within eight hours of the start of their symptoms. They all had a blood clot in a major brain artery, which had cut off blood supply and caused their stroke. The researchers collected information on age and sex, and risk factors likely to affect the success of treatment, such as high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms (atrial fibrillation), diabetes, and high cholesterol. They also looked at other key factors, including the size and location of the clot, the time taken before treatment … Continue reading →