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It's My Job: Stroke care moves forward

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

It's My Job Dr. M. Ziad Darkhabani, right, works with Nancy Schulte, an interventional radiology technician to position an X-ray imaging arm to help guide him in threading a catheter into a patients brain to remove a blood clot. Scott Thuen / Special to The Forum FARGO It was not long ago that treatment for a stroke focused on rehabilitation. Because of a lack of blood flow to the brain, most patients who survived suffered brain damage and other disabilities. They often faced months of rehabilitation or life in a care facility. Today, if a stroke is diagnosed early and treatment applied, the survival rate and outcome can be better. Dr. Ziad Darkhabani is a stroke and interventional neurologist at Essentia Health. He specializes in using catheters to remove blood clots and repair aneurysms in the brain. Q. What do you do? Interventional neurology means we treat the vessels of the head and neck using a catheter technique. A catheter is a plastic hose or tube made specially to go inside the vessel. Most of the time we go through the femoral artery, which is a vessel in the leg. There are two aspects of the job. The first is … Continue reading →

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Medical Mystery: Dementia, Parkinson's appear to have happened overnight

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

But Parkinson's disease and dementia are degenerative diseases of the brain, which typically take years, not weeks, to come on. How could a previously healthy 49-year-old woman develop signs of dementia and Parkinson's disease so quickly? The only abnormalities in her blood work were a high number of a white blood cell called an eosinophil and an elevated level of an enzyme usually from the liver or bones. Eosinophils usually only make up one to two percent of a patient's white blood cells, but for her almost half were eosinophils. These cells are usually elevated in allergic disease, but can also be a sign of a parasitic infection, a tumor, or an autoimmune disease. In the last several years there have been increasing reports of rapid-onset dementias due to an autoimmune process. This might explain her symptoms, but an elevated eosinophil count isn't usually found in such cases. These dementias are often associated with tumors - the tumor stimulates the body to make proteins that attack the brain, causing it to malfunction. The other abnormal blood test - the enzyme - is often elevated in diseases involving the liver or bones. She would need to be evaluated for signs of … Continue reading →

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Community rallies for Blaise

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

Topics: blaise wyatt, craft and gift fair, fundraiser THE Ipswich community has continued to rally behind courageous Silkstone five-year-old Blaise Wyatt. Blaise, who suffers from spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, will be returning to the US next month for 180 hours of treatment. A fair to help the Wyatt family was held at the Ipswich RSL Services Club on Saturday. Blaise will undergo hyperbaric and speech therapy while in the US. His mother Dawn Wyatt said it was great to see the community still supporting them. "All the money will go towards helping Blaise and supporting his therapy," she said. Mrs Wyatt said the therapy was resulting in real results for Blaise. "It's helped him a lot," she said. "He's more alert than ever before and more aware of what is happening." Read more: Community rallies for Blaise … Continue reading →

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Student awarded 2.75m over rugby match brain injury

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

A file image of Lucas Neville and his mother Michelle Neville outside the High Court in Dublin. The former St Michaels College student was today awarded 2.75 million damages for a brain injury suffered during a rugby match. Photograph: Collins A young man who suffered a serious head injury during a schools rugby match has secured 2.75 million damages, plus costs, under a settlement approved by the High Court today. Lucas Nevilles mother Michelle told Ms Justice Mary Irvine she was consenting to the offer made but it was a matter of regret to herself and her son they have never received any apology from either his former school or St Vincents Hospital arising from the injury he had suffered. What happened to him and what he went through should not have happened, she said. Mr Neville had sued his former school, St Michaels College, Ailesbury Road, Dublin, and St Vincents Healthcare Group, as owner of St Vincents Hospital, Elm Park, Dublin, arising from the injury in November 2009. Both defendants had admitted liability but disputed Mr Nevilles claim for some 5 million damages. A central dispute between the sides related to the fact the 5 million claim included a … Continue reading →

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Natalizumab treatment in patients with MS associated with JC virus infection

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 24-Mar-2014 Contact: Remekca Owens remekca.owens@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 The JAMA Network Journals Bottom Line: Treatment with natalizumab in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) appears linked with JC virus (JCV) infection, which can lead to a rare and often fatal demyelinating disease of the central nervous system called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) that destroys the myelin that protects nerve cells. The movement of cells with JC virus into the blood stream may provide researchers with a possible reason why patients with MS develop PML Author: Elliot M Frohman, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and colleagues. Background: Since natalizumab was reintroduced as a biologic therapy for MS in 2006, more than 440 cases of PML have been reported. Risk factors associated with development of PML include receiving 24 or more natalizumab infusions, receiving other immunosuppressive treatments and testing positive for JCV antibodies in a blood test. How the Study Was Conducted: The authors evaluated 49 patients with MS and 18 healthy volunteers by drawing blood samples and examining CD34+ cells from the bone marrow plus CD19+ and CD3+ cells. Among the 49 MS patients, 26 were beginning natalizumab therapy. For these patients, blood was drawn … Continue reading →

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Great strides made, but research continues on care for MS patients

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

"MS has gone from an untreatable disease to having ten FDA-approved therapies for relapsing MS, the most common form of the condition," says Arney Rosenblat, a spokesperson for the National MS Society. "It's a wonderful time to be a neurologist and to have the opportunity to do some great things for people," says Clyde Markowitz, the director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Pennsylvania. There remains no cure and little treatment for rarer forms of MS. Relapses can be debilitating. "What we're looking for next," Markowitz says, "are more effective therapies, better-tolerated therapies, and restorative therapies." A chronic autoimmune disease, MS destroys nerve-insulating material called myelin and damages the underlying nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord, which can lead to weakness in one or more limbs, balance problems, and numbness. MS affects about 400,000 Americans, mostly younger women. Over the past year, the National MS Society has spent nearly $50 million on 380 research projects around the world. Sometimes called the 'snowflake disease,' MS can vary by individual. The most common type is relapsing-remitting, which affects about 90 percent of patients. Patients suffer flare-ups in which their symptoms worsen, followed by partial or complete remissions. … Continue reading →

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Ataxia Symptoms, Causes, Treatment – What are the …

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

What are the different types of ataxia? The cerebellum is the region of the brain that is responsible for coordinating motion in the body. When the brain commands part of the body to move, electrical signals are transmitted through the spinal cord into peripheral nerves that then stimulate a muscle to contract, initiating movement. That part of the body also has sensory nerves that collect information from the environment about position and proprioception, where the body is in time and space. These signals return via the same peripheral nerves but through a different pathway in the spinal cord. The cerebellum takes this information, as well as input from vision from the eyes and balance from the vestibular system of the inner ear, to help smooth out purposeful movement. Failure of any one or more of these pathway components can lead to ataxia. Cerebellar ataxia is caused by abnormalities and damage, either temporary or permanent, to the cerebellum. Sensory ataxia occurs when the dorsal columns of the spinal cord fail to function normally. They are responsible for carrying proprioception information from the body to the brain. Damage to parts of the brain that have to interpret the information may also cause … Continue reading →

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Forever Young Peter Nygard- Stem Cell Research – Video

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

Forever Young Peter Nygard- Stem Cell Research Interview with fashion mogul Peter Nygard about his research with stem cells, ..he tells how he's working with the medical community to develop a virtual fou... By: Seasons BeverlyHills … Continue reading →

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Stem Cell Research- Curiosity Unleahed – Video

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

Stem Cell Research- Curiosity Unleahed via YouTube Capture. By: AJR4188 … Continue reading →

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Stem cell tourism takes advantage of patients, says law professor

Posted: Published on March 24th, 2014

Desperate patients are easy prey for unscrupulous clinics offering untested and risky stem cell treatments, says UW-Madison law and bioethics Professor Alta Charo, who is studying "stem cell tourism." Stem cells are cells that can form many types of cells in the body, and that makes them inherently promising and dangerous. "Stem cell tourism" refers to people traveling, both within the U.S. and abroad, in pursuit of advertised stem cell therapies to purportedly treat a variety of medical conditions. Alta Charo "The evidence for therapeutic use of stem cells is very limited, except for bone marrow stem cells, but patients all over the world are convinced stem cells will cure their disease," says Charo. "While there are some very promising results in the early clinical trials for stem cell therapies using embryonic and other kinds of stem cells, the 'treatments' being advertised by these clinics are dubious, mostly ineffective, and sometimes positively harmful. "Patients are being hoodwinked, but there are dilemmas about tackling (the 'treatments') at regulatory or political levels." The outrage over failures in stem cell tourism is limited, Charo says. Patients may pay tens of thousands of dollars for procedures that may carry no promise of success or … Continue reading →

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