Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise (Salt Lake City) The University of Utah will host a lecture on March 17 focused on understanding the genetic basis of epilepsy and how to translate research findings into patient care. The lecture, Large-Scale Team Science and Epilepsy Genetics: The EPGP and Epi4K Experience, will be delivered by Dan Lowenstein, M.D., Vice-Chairman of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and is part of a national campaign sponsored by the non-profit group CURE (Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy). Lowenstein has been a principal organizer of two large-scale, international efforts to study the complex genetics of epilepsy over the past 10 years. These projects, Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project and Epi4K: Gene Discovery in 4,000 Genomes, are NIH-funded and have paved the way for advancements in medicine for the treatment of epilepsy. Lowensteins lecture at the University of Utah is part of CUREs ongoing seminar series, which has included stops at prestigious universities including Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. The goal of the lecture series is to incorporate discussion about epilepsy included more in curriculum at medical schools around the … Continue reading →

Lynchburg, VA - There's now a new center in Lynchburg to help both children and their families understand and deal with being diagnosed with autism. Centra's Autism Diagnostic Center is set to open March 18. The groundbreaking center came about because of a lack of specific services for children with autism. It's designed to diagnose and treat children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Centra hopes it will also help families get through the diagnosis. Dr. Jitendra Annapareddy refers to Autism as a 'Journey. When he joined Centra last year, his goal was to create a treatment center that would be there for the whole ride. "We can follow these children throughout their lives, so they can become successful adults," Annapareddy said. Centra's new Autism Diagnostic and Treatment Center has set out to standardize the diagnostic process. "There are different clinicians working in different settings that are diagnosing these children," Annapareddy continued. At the new center, the child will undergo diagnostic testing which will assess the child's disorder across age, development level, and language skills. Read more: New Autism Center Opens in Lynchburg … Continue reading →

Eden Autism Services presents its 20th Annual Princeton Lecture Series at Princeton Universitys McDonnell Hall on Friday, March 21. For families and professionals, Princeton Lecture Series is an open forum where leading authorities in the field present new findings and future possibilities for the treatment and awareness of autism. In addition to the keynote presentations, the day will conclude with a question and answer panel discussion comprised of experts in the autism field. Speaker Dr. Margaret L. Bauman of Boston Universitys School of Medicine, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, will address the issue of medical co-morbidities. V. Mark Durand, autism spectrum disorders authority and professor of psychology at the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg, will present Understanding and Treating Severe Behavior Problems in Persons with ASD. Paul Wehman of Virginia Commonwealth University will present Youth with Autism: Toward Full Participation in the Community. As we celebrate 20 years of amazing speakers, we also look back at the many developments that have taken place over the past two decades, says Carol Markowitz, Chief Operating Officer of Eden Autism Services. In the early nineties, prevalence rates for children in the United States affected by autism were 1 in 10,000; today … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Mar-2014 Contact: Connie Hughes Connie.Hughes@wolterskluwer.com 646-674-6348 Wolters Kluwer Health Philadelphia, Pa. (March 4, 2014) Prehospital stroke alerts by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can shorten the time to effective treatment with "clot-busting" drugs for patients with stroke, according to a report in the March 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. Dr. Mandy J. Binning and colleagues at the Capital Institute for Neurosciences (CIN) at Capital Health, Trenton and Pennington, N.J., implemented a prehospital stroke alert (PHSA) protocol in a specialized neurological emergency department (ED) setting. The PHSA approach allows patients with probable stroke to bypass the ED and go for immediate computed tomography (CT) scanningsaving valuable minutes in emergency treatment of stroke. Trained EMS Personnel Issue Prehospital Stroke Alerts The PHSA system was introduced at Capital Health's two neurological EDs to facilitate emergency treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Intravenous tPA can dissolve the clot that's causing the stroke. However, to be effective, treatment must be started within 4.5 hours after initial stroke symptoms. Ideally, the "door-to-needle" timefrom arrival at the hospital to the start of tPA … Continue reading →

Pulse Therapeutics just scored a $1.3 million investment in a push toward clinical trials for technology that it says would deliver drug treatments for stroke to the brain quicker. The capital for St. Louis-based Pulse came from local firms Cultivation Capital and FTL Capital. Pulses technology targets the 15 million people worldwide who suffer a stroke each year about a third of who die from it, and another third who are left permanently disabled. Theres an FDA-approved treatment for ischemic strokes, but it comes with some baggage. The issue is that tPA, a thrombolytic agent that dissolves clots and restores blood flow to the brain, is supposed to be administered within three to four-and-a-half hours after onset of stroke. Because its so time-dependent, and because it is quickly metabolized in the body, its effectiveness is often limited. And it increases the risk of hemorrhage in the brain or other parts of the body, which occurs in about 6 percent of patients who receive the drug. Pulses proposal is that its device could speed the delivery of tPA to the site of a clot and deliver a greater concentration of the drug, hopefully improving outcomes and widening the current therapy window. … Continue reading →