Category Archives: Brain Injury Treatment

WASHINGTON and NEW YORK, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2) and Exosome Diagnostics are collaborating with leading academic medical centers to accelerate clinical validation of Exosome's blood and cerebrospinal fluid-based molecular diagnostics technology in brain cancer.  The collaboration will explore the capabilities of Exosome RNA biofluid-based diagnostic technology for early identification, progression monitoring and disease risk stratification in glioma, the most common form of brain cancer. Brain cancer is the leading cause of death among children and young adults under age 20. This year, more than 200,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with either a primary or metastatic brain tumor.  There are more than 120 different types of brain tumors, making specific diagnosis and effective treatment extremely complicated. In many cases, accessing brain tissue via biopsy carries significant risk or is not surgically feasible.  The ability to sample a brain cancer's genetic characteristics through a blood or cerebrospinal fluid sample could contribute greatly to driving advances in clinical treatment and drug development. This collaboration will bring together world-leading clinicians, researchers and industry participants to develop the potential of stable, high-quality disease-specific RNA harvested from exosomes found in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. The joint effort will … Continue reading →

Media and official reports on prevalence rates of military war stress injury have focused almost exclusively on escalating rates of well-known war stress injuries such as PTSD, depression, generalized anxiety, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). Take a look at some of this week's headlines: However, the true impact from war trauma cannot be reduced to a handful of psychiatric diagnoses, as some may want. It is a well-established, albeit uncomfortable, and conveniently ignored historical, medical and scientific fact that human adaptation to uncontrollable, unpredictable and potentially traumatic stress "causes" or significantly contributes to a wide-range of neurobiological, physical, cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes that, when chronic and/or severe enough, will inevitably cause significant physiological alterations in the brain-mind-body, eventually leading to physical and/or psychological breakdown. It's not just me saying it. According to the National Institute of Medicine's exhaustive review of deployment-related stress effects on health: "In the brain, there is evidence of structural and functional changes resulting directly from chronic or severe stress." The changes are associated with alterations of the most profound functions of the brain: memory and decision-making [Institute of Medicine, (2008). Gulf War and Health: Volume 6. Physiologic, Psychologic, and Psychosocial Effects of Deployment-Related … Continue reading →

A car accident, a rough tackle, an unexpected tumble. The number of ways to bang up the brain are almost as numerous as the people who sustain these injuries. And only recently has it become clear just how damaging a seemingly minor knock can be. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is no longer just a condition acknowledged in military personnel or football players and other professional athletes. Each year some 1.7 million civilians will suffer an injury that disrupts the function of their brains, qualifying it as a TBI. About 8.5 percent of U.S. non-incarcerated adults have a history of TBI, and about 2 percent of the greater population is currently suffering from some sort of disability because of their injury. In prisons, however, approximately 60 percent of adults have had at least one TBI—and even higher prevalence has been reported in some systems. These injuries, which can alter behavior, emotion and impulse control, can keep prisoners behind bars longer and increases the odds they will end up there again. Although the majority of people who suffer a TBI will not end up in the criminal justice system, each one who does costs states an average of $29,000 a year. With … Continue reading →

03-02-2012 11:10 February 2, 2012 news report from WJHG-7 in Panama City of Dr Eddie Zant of HyperbaricMedicineOfFlorida.com with offices in Destin and Fort Walton successfully treating Irag/Afghan vets suffering from PTSD/TBI. Reporter Meredith TerHaar then went one step further and contacted the local VA office in Biloxi, MS and was told HBOT was never considered as a treatment for PTSD/TBI. TerHaar then contacted VA headquarters in Washington DC to ask why HBOT is not covered by the VA for PTSD and TBI. The answer? The VA would not provide a response. Excerpt from: More HBOT success for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury (PTSD and TBI) - Video … Continue reading →

Imaging Technology Tracks Stem Cells to Brain after Carotid Artery Injection in Animals Newswise — Philadelphia, Pa. (February 1, 2012) – Experiments in brain-injured rats show that stem cells injected via the carotid artery travel directly to the brain, where they greatly enhance functional recovery, reports a study in the February issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The carotid artery injection technique—along with some form of in vivo optical imaging to track the stem cells after transplantation—may be part of emerging approaches to stem cell transplantation for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans, according to the new research, led by Dr Toshiya Osanai of Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan. Advanced Imaging Technology Lets Researchers Track Stem Cells The researchers evaluated a new "intra-arterial" technique of stem cell transplantation in rats. Within seven days after induced TBI, stem cells created from the rats' bone marrow were injected into the carotid artery. The goal was to deliver the stem cells directly to the brain, without having them travel through the general circulation. Before injection, the stem cells were labeled … Continue reading →

23-12-2011 00:38 Full Article Here - optometrystudents.com http://www.Optomterystudents.com recently had the pleasure to speak to one of the world's experts in binocular vision, Dr. Kenneth Ciuffreda. Dr. Ciuffreda has spent ample time researching and working with patients with various complex visual dysfunctions, and has contributed many studies providing proper analysis and treatment for these patients including individuals with mild traumatic brain injury. Ready the full article here optometrystudents.com See the article here: Dr. Ciuffreda Interview on Optometry/Binocular Vision - Video … Continue reading →

A team of experts at San Antonio Military Medical Center has launched a military study aimed at improving outcomes for service members suffering from a signature wound of today's wars: traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Study of Cognitive Rehabilitation Effectiveness, dubbed the SCORE trial, is examining cognitive rehabilitation therapy's value as a treatment for service members with mild TBI. The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments teamed up on this study to determine the best treatment for combat troops who are experiencing mild TBI symptoms — such as difficulties with attention, concentration, memory and judgment — three to 24 months post-injury, explained Douglas B. Cooper, the study's lead and a clinical neuropsychologist for the center's Traumatic Brain Injury Service. “We have a lot of great interventions to help … in the first few days after concussion,” he said. However, “we don't have as many good interventions later on — six months, 12 months or two years post-injury,” added Cooper, who also serves as the director of the Military Brain Injury Rehabilitation Research Consortium. The trial's aim is to determine if cognitive rehabilitation therapy improves chronic mild TBI symptoms and, if so, which interventions work best, on whom and why. Cognitive rehabilitation, … Continue reading →

20-11-2011 13:40 According to research published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the development of aggressive behavior after brain injury is linked to injury location and gene expression. The article,Prefrontal cortex lesions and MAO-A modulate aggression in penetrating traumatic brain injury," is authored by a group headed by Jordan Grafman, PhD, director of traumatic brain injury research at Kessler Foundation. This is a follow-up study to the Vietnam Veterans Head Injury Project, which monitors long-term sequelae in more than 200 veterans with penetrating brain injury. Aggressive behavior develops in some individuals after traumatic brain injury--the signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Aggressive behavior not only hinders rehabilitation and recovery after brain injury, it's devastating to families. kesslerfoundation.org Head injury has become known as the "signature injury" of the Iraq war. The Website of the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC), a congressionally funded research and outreach agency, cites a brain injury rate of 62% among troops returning from combat duty in Iraq. Blast-related TBI, an effect of the over-pressurized shock wave that ripples out from an explosion, is a particular concern in the current conflicts. In the Walter Reed study, about … Continue reading →

The Virginia personal injury firm of Marks & Harrison says ‘Joining Forces’ initiative will benefit veterans as well as civilians suffering from TBI, PTSD and other disabilities. Richmond, VA (PRWEB) January 28, 2012 The Richmond traumatic brain injury attorneys[1] of Marks & Harrison today released a statement in support of a White House initiative to expand the study of military veterans’ health care issues, like traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, at the nation’s medical schools. Marks & Harrison, a Virginia personal injury firm[2] that focuses on traumatic brain injury (TBI) cases, said First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden’s Joining Forces initiative will provide needed medical support to 800,000 veterans who call Virginia home. The Joining Forces initiative unites the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine with 130 schools and medical research facilities “to leverage their missions in education, research and clinical care to train the nation’s physicians to meet the unique health care needs of the military and veterans’ communities,” a White House statement[3] said. Obama and Biden announced the program at Virginia Commonwealth University earlier this month. “The advances in treatment and understanding of traumatic brain injury … Continue reading →

12-09-2011 04:10 More than 134000 service members have suffered traumatic brain injury since 2003. Now, the military is conducting one of the first scientific tests of using a pressurized chamber as treatment. (Sept. Read more: Military Tests Pressurized Chamber to Treat TBI - Video … Continue reading →