Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

ScienceDaily (July 31, 2012) Concussions and even lesser head impacts may speed up the brain's natural aging process by causing signaling pathways in the brain to break down more quickly than they would in someone who has never suffered a brain injury or concussion. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology and the U-M Health System looked at college students with and without a history of concussion and found changes in gait, balance and in the brain's electrical activity, specifically attention and impulse control, said Steven Broglio, assistant professor of kinesiology and director of the Neurotrauma Research Laboratory. The declines were present in the brain injury group up to six years after injury, though the differences between the study groups were very subtle, and outwardly all of the participants looked and acted the same. Broglio, who is also affiliated with Michigan NeuroSport, stressed that the studies lay out a hypothesis where concussions and head impacts accelerate the brain's natural aging process. The study appears in the July issue of journal Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews. "The last thing we want is for people to panic. Just because you've had a concussion does not mean your brain will age … Continue reading →

Portland, OR (PRWEB) July 31, 2012 A new traumatic brain injury infographic, released by the Portland personal injury lawyers of Shulman DuBois LLC, details important statistics and information about an increasingly prevalent health problem. Traumatic brain injuries were a problem before the NFL lawsuits, but these cases have brought a lot of public attention to this health concern, said Portland brain injury attorney Joshua Shulman, a member of the Oregon Brain Injury Association. We wanted to create this traumatic brain injury infographic to help educate everyone about the causes and signs of brain injury. Shulman said his biggest concern about TBIs is that many people dont recognize the signs, so they do not receive timely medical treatment. Signs of traumatic brain injury include: According to the CDC, there are 52,000 deaths related to TBI in the United States every year, and an estimated 1,700,000 injuries. The highest rates of TBI hospitalization and death are among adults over 75, though children 0-14 make an average of 473,947 emergency room visits every year. Causes of traumatic brain injury include: Many TBIs are also caused by sports, which is why coaches, parents, and kids need to play hard but take proper precautions, Shulman … Continue reading →

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire -07/30/12)- Lpath, Inc. (LPTN), the industry leader in lipidomics-based therapeutics, has brought scientists one step closer to finding a treatment for spinal cord injury with the creation of Lpathomab, an antibody that reverses much of the damage caused by trauma to the nervous system. As published by the American Journal of Pathology, Lpathomab can be used as a drug to reduce the size of a spinal cord injury (SCI) and improve functional behavioral outcomes in experimental animal models. The antibody works as a molecular sponge by soaking up lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a molecule that can damage neurons and promote scarring in the central nervous system. In collaboration with scientists at the University of Melbourne, the antibody was tested in mice that had partially severed spinal cords. A key finding of the study was the significant efficacy of administering Lpathomab after an injury, thus demonstrating a potential therapeutic benefit. Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of neurotrauma such as SCI and traumatic brain injury (TBI). "This groundbreaking research provides new hope for therapeutic treatments for many forms of neurotrauma, including SCI and TBI, as well as other forms of neurodegenerative disorders," said Roger Sabbadini, vice … Continue reading →

Readmore: Local, Community, Health, News, National, Robert Hockings, Skull Base Institute, Brain Tumor, Operation, Surgery, Baraga, Hrayr Shahinian BARAGA -- When Robert Hockings was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he feared for the worst. "I thought, '55 years isn't too bad, I've lived a good life so far it's probably coming to an end,'" recalled Hockings. Hockings works as a corrections officer at the Baraga Maximum Correctional Facility and it's there where an incident triggered a series of events that lead to his diagnosis. Back in May Hockings suffered a blow to the head during an inmate altercation at the prison. Hockings says that moment ended up changing his life. Hockings only thought he suffered a concussion, but severe and constant head-aches brought him back to the hospital. A CT scan revealed a mass growing near his brain and Hockings was rushed to Marquette General where he was diagnosed him with the tumor. He consulted with doctors at the Mayo Clinic, who recommended a heavily invasive procedure. "Their procedure there at Mayo in Rochester would be an open craniotomy where they cut you ear to ear, peel your face down and take a large portion of your skull cap off … Continue reading →

A Macon man has filed a lawsuit against three Macon police officers, Police Chief Mike Burns and Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena, claiming he suffered a permanent brain injury during his arrest and was later deprived of medical care at the county jail. Jimmy Brewster, of Vineville Avenue, alleges he was sitting on his friends porch on Columbus Road at 1:20 a.m. on July 22, 2010, when police came into the yard, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Bibb County Superior Court. According to the lawsuit: Officer Clayton Sutton pointed a gun at Brewster and demanded that he come to him. Sutton threatened to shoot Brewster if he refused. Brewster told the officer hed done nothing wrong and walked toward the door to the house. Brewster, 48, alleges that officer Lisa Sapp grabbed Brewster and kept him from going inside the house. While Sapp held Brewster, Sutton struck him between two and four times in the head with a flashlight, the lawsuit alleges. Police took Brewster into custody and asked if he wanted to go to the hospital. Thinking he just had a bad headache, Brewster declined help, according to the lawsuit. He was charged with misdemeanor obstruction, giving … Continue reading →

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Alzheimer's / Dementia Also Included In: Parkinson's Disease;Multiple Sclerosis;Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 25 Jul 2012 - 3:00 PDT Current ratings for: Drug For Alzheimer's, Parkinson's And MS Shows Promise 2.77 (13 votes) 2 (1 votes) A pre-clinical study due to be published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience shows one of the drugs stopped mice bred to have Alzheimer's from developing the full-blown disease. The new class of drugs, developed at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US, approaches the treatment of Alzheimer's differently to the ones currently being tested to prevent beta amyloid plaques in the brain. While the plaques are known to indicate Alzheimer's, nobody has yet proved that they cause the disease. A press statement released on Tuesday reveals Northwestern has already been issued with patents to cover the drugs and has licensed commercial development to a biotech company that has just completed the first phase 1 clinical trial which tests safety in humans. The new class of drugs, currently known as MW151 and MW189, target a particular type of brain inflammation that is a common denominator in MS, Alzheimer's and Parkinsons, and also in traumatic brain … Continue reading →

A SINGLE pill has the potential to treat multiple brain conditions including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis. Scientists have developed a new class of drug which can be taken orally and prevents the damaging effects of inflammation in the brain. Early results from animal studies suggest it could be effective against a plethora of devastating brain conditions. They include Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), motor neurone disease, frontotemporal dementia, and complications from traumatic brain injury. Two of the drugs, known as MW151 and MW189, have been patented by US scientists at Northwestern University in Chicago. They work by blocking excess production of damaging immune system signalling molecules called pro-inflammatory cytokines. New research published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed how early treatment with MW151 prevented the development of full-blown Alzheimer's in laboratory mice. Scientists say the drugs offer a completely different approach to treating the disease to others currently being tested. These target the accumulation of beta amyloid protein deposits in the brain which are a key feature of Alzheimer's. In contrast the new drugs are designed to stop inflammation disrupting wiring in the brain and killing neurons. See the rest here: Pill could treat brain conditions … Continue reading →

By MONIFA J. THOMAS Health Reporter mjthomas@suntimes.com July 24, 2012 4:46PM 8-30-2010---General scenes of Northwestern University in Evanston---for affordable colleges story---The archway on Sheridan Road--on campus--Sun-Times photo by Tom Cruze storyidforme: 34011645 tmspicid: 12477858 fileheaderid: 5669370 Updated: July 24, 2012 9:37PM A new class of drug shows promise it might one day offer a new form of treatment for Alzheimers disease, as well as helping fight multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the University of Kentucky reported Tuesday. In tests on mice, the experimental drugs reduced inflammation in the brain. Such neuroinflammation is believed to play a key role in the progressive damage involved in Alzheimers and the other neurological conditions, as well as in stroke. Reporting in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers said they found that that one of the experimental drugs, known as MW151, significantly slowed the effects of Alzheimers disease in mice that were genetically engineered to develop the disease when given orally three times a week beginning at six months of age. The mouse study was designed to be comparable to when a human patient would begin to develop mild cognitive impairment, an early sign of … Continue reading →

Public release date: 24-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Jennifer Kritz 617-636-3707 Tufts University, Health Sciences Campus BOSTON (July 24, 2012, 5:00PM EST)A study, performed in mice and utilizing post-mortem samples of brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease, found that a single event of a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt proteins that regulate an enzyme associated with Alzheimer's. The paper, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, identifies the complex mechanisms that result in a rapid and robust post-injury elevation of the enzyme, BACE1, in the brain. These results may lead to the development of a drug treatment that targets this mechanism to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. "A moderate-to-severe TBI, or head trauma, is one of the strongest environmental risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. A serious TBI can lead to a dysfunction in the regulation of the enzyme BACE1. Elevations of this enzyme cause elevated levels of amyloid-beta, the key component of brain plaques associated with senility and Alzheimer's disease," said first author Kendall Walker, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the department of neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM). Building on her previous work, neuroscientist Giuseppina Tesco, MD, PhD, of Tufts University School of … Continue reading →

Public release date: 24-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu 312-503-8928 Northwestern University CHICAGO --- A new class of drug developed at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shows early promise of being a one-size-fits-all therapy for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury by reducing inflammation in the brain. Northwestern has recently been issued patents to cover this new drug class and has licensed the commercial development to a biotech company that has recently completed the first human Phase 1 clinical trial for the drug. The drugs in this class target a particular type of brain inflammation, which is a common denominator in these neurological diseases and in traumatic brain injury and stroke. This brain inflammation, also called neuroinflammation, is increasingly believed to play a major role in the progressive damage characteristic of these chronic diseases and brain injuries. By addressing brain inflammation, the new class of drugs -- represented by MW151 and MW189 -- offers an entirely different therapeutic approach to Alzheimer's than current ones being tested to prevent the development of beta amyloid plaques in the brain. The plaques are an indicator of the disease but not a proven cause. … Continue reading →