Seoul St. Mary`s Hospital performs 5,000th hematopoietic stem cell transplantation OCTOBER 11, 2013 05:40 Seoul St. Mary`s Hospital performs 5,000th hematopoietic stem cell transplantation . OCTOBER 11, 2013 05:40. . The Seoul St. Mary`s Hospital on Thursday became Asia`s first medical institution to perform 5,000 transplants of hematopoietic stem cells. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a treatment involving the infusion of blood-forming stem cells into patients of blood tumors such as leukemia, malignant lymphoma and multiple myeloma. The Seoul St. Mary`s Hospital has reached the milestone 30 years after it performed Korea`s first successful transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells between two brothers in 1983. In the number of such hematopoietic stem cell transplantations, the hospital ranks sixth in the world and first in Asia. In transplantations of allergenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the hospital ranks the fourth in the world. It is also the country`s first hospital to successfully perform autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, umbilical cord blood transplantation and nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation. The hospital`s 5,000th patient who underwent the hematopoietic stem cell transplant is an 18-year-old leukemic girl, who received bone marrows from her younger brother. "An analysis shows that we are one of the best performers in … Continue reading →

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- ViaCyte, Inc. announced today that an update on the Company's progress toward a transformative stem cell-derived cell therapy for the treatment of type 1 diabetes will be presented at the 3rd Annual Regen Med Partnering Forum, part of the 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa to be held October 14-16 in La Jolla, California. The presentation will be given by Eugene Brandon, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Relations & Project Management at ViaCyte. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121026/LA00871LOGO-a) Organized by the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, the 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa is a three-day conference aimed at bringing together senior members of the regenerative medicine industry with the scientific research community to advance stem cell science into cures. The Regen Med Partnering Forum, to be held October 14-15 at the Estancia La Jolla Hotel, is the only partnering meeting organized specifically for the regenerative medicine and advanced therapies industry. The meeting also features a nationally recognized Scientific Symposium, to be held October 16 at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, showcasing leading academic research in the field of regenerative … Continue reading →

During the public comments portion of the meeting, the student stood in the center of the room as he read a letter he had written. Ranieri had apparently been suspended from school for two days, but he didn't think the punishment was fair. As he tried to explain himself, the school board's president, Stephen Waldenburg Jr., interrupted Ranieri and wouldn't let him continue. You have to understand that we are legally limited in what we can discuss in a public session, Ranieri said. You are not giving the superintendent an opportunity to discuss a private, personal matter. While Ranieris intention was to just self-advocate, as his mother Carina Ranieri told the Examiner, it was clear that the board didn't want to hear what he had to say. It was apparent he was not being heard, she said. According to Carina, her son wrote the letter he was trying to read because the elected school board members are not taking responsibility for Ranieri being suspended. The teen is given special accommodations through an Individualized Education Plan, but Ranieri felt teachers were not following through with the program. Frustrated, the student reportedly yelled at a teacher on Sept. 27, which is when … Continue reading →

By Dean Narciso The Columbus Dispatch Thursday October 10, 2013 5:39 AM Step By Step Academy, an autism-treatment center in Worthington, plans to buy the nearly century-old home of a mental-health facility owned by Ohio State University. The 45-acre Harding Hospital property at 445 E. Dublin-Granville Rd. is in contract for $4.5 million and contingent on a land transfer approved by state lawmakers. A Senate bill was introduced on Monday to begin that process. The academy has leased property from Harding since 2002. A top-10 employer in Worthington, Step By Step includes 190 full- and part-time workers and has a $6 million payroll. Step By Step estimates it will add 90 employees once the sale is completed, said attorney John Gleason. The sale would allow Step By Step to house and treat autistic children on the campus, said Jeffry Harris, Worthington economic-development director. About 14 children would live on the campus, said Gleason, with the goal of getting kids back to their families. Since about 2000, OSU has downsized its psychiatric care at the facility, moving its emergency services to OSUs main campus. The property, along with the former United Methodist Childrens Home, has been viewed as one of the … Continue reading →

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., gets help entering the Capitol from Vice President Joe Biden (right) in January 2013, one year after suffering a stroke at age 52. Having even a small stroke can be a scare. Some people recover well, while others struggle to talk, move or live as they did before. Quality of life in the years after a stroke is something that's gotten surprisingly little attention, even though so-called quality-adjusted life years are a common measure for the cost-effectiveness of medical treatments. Not surprisingly, people who were disabled by major strokes reported the worst quality of life, a long-term study of stroke patients in England finds. But even people who had tiny strokes called TIAs, which leave little or no damage in the brain, reported lower quality of life years later. The issues included anxiety over the risk of future strokes, and the hassle of taking anticoagulant drugs like warfarin, which require frequent blood tests and careful attention to diet and other drugs. The type of stroke people had mattered, too. People who had ischemic strokes, which are caused by blood clots, did better than people with hemorrhagic strokes, caused by bleeding in the brain. The researchers followed … Continue reading →

Having a stroke, or even a transient ischemic attack (a TIA, often called a "mini-stroke") can be a costly watershed in a person's life. Statistically, it deducts years from patients' lives. But it claims another toll too: in quality of life after the stroke has happened. New research tallies the combined cost of those two very different measures, and suggests that current treatments for stroke aren't doing nearly enough to minimize strokes' true cost. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology, is an exercise in health economics that seeks to generate a fuller picture of a disease's cost. That calculation gives insurers, hospital administrators and public health officials a better -- and hopefully more humane -- basis for deciding which treatments are most "cost-effective." If a treatment for stroke -- the costly administration of the clot buster called tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, for instance -- saves people from dying when properly used (as it does), that's a plus. But if it also reduces disability and allows more stroke patients to return to fuller function than they would have without it, that's even better. The treatment has not only added years to life, it has added life to years, … Continue reading →

Oct. 9, 2013 Healthcare providers are teaming up with the Fluvanna Rotary Club to raise stroke awareness. In this week's Martha Jefferson Healthwise report, CBS19's Stephanie Satchell is previewing an upcoming clinic that will teach people about prevention, treatment and common symptoms of stroke. The Rotary Club of Fluvanna County will be joining forces with Martha Jefferson Hospital. Charles Hoffman along with his fellow Rotary members will be putting on a stroke clinic in Fluvanna County. A stroke is simply a blockage in the blood vessel that reduces blood flow to the brain. "We're having it to service our citizens of Fluvanna County to provide them with an opportunity to learn about their health needs with regards to strokes and stroke prevention, treatments and stroke rehabilitation and recovery. Martha Jefferson's Neuro Services Program Coordinator Christi Hankle says a stroke comes on quickly and can happen at any age so it's important to know exactly what to do. "It's really important to get attention because a lot of people still don't recognize that strokes are treatable, but the only way that strokes can be treatable is if you come to the hospital fast by calling 911," said Christi Hankle, Neuro Services … Continue reading →

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Stroke Also Included In: Seniors / Aging;Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 10 Oct 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for: Stroke 'causes 60% loss of quality years' 5 (1 votes) For every 5 quality years of life, 3 are taken away for people who have had a stroke, long-term research has found - a loss of 60%. The study, published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, involved 1,188 patients - 748 who had a stroke and 440 who had a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Researchers followed these patients for 5 years. The researchers used a measure called utility, which put a numerical value on the desirability of various health outcomes for patients responding to a questionnaire. Utility represents quality of life in single numbers along a continuum, extending from 0.0 (death) to 1.0 ("perfect health"). A negative value represents a state "worse than death." The authors note that "utilities can be combined with life expectancy to generate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs)." The study determined the 5-year QALYs for the participants. This was calculated by multiplying the time spent in a health state by the value assigned to that particular health state. … Continue reading →

Abington, PA (PRWEB) October 09, 2013 Abington Memorial Hospital, a Gold Plus level recipient, is among 853 hospitals receiving a Get With the GuidelinesStroke award this year. More than 1,000 hospitals received awards for their achievements in heart, stroke and resuscitation care. All recipients were featured in a special advertisement in the August issue of US News & World Reports Americas Best Hospitals. Get With The Guidelines is a hospital-based quality improvement program created to ensure hospitals consistently care for heart and stroke patients using the most up-to-date guidelines and recommendations. With Get With the GuidelinesStroke treatment guidelines, stroke patients are started on aggressive therapies and medications that can help improve patient care and outcomes. Hospitals must follow these measures at a set level for a designated period of time to be eligible for the achievement awards. Abington Memorial Hospital also made the Target: Stroke Honor Roll for ensuring at least 50 percent of eligible stroke patients get prompt treatment to restore blood flow to the brain within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital critical to limiting stroke damage. We are proud to be recognized for our achievements by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association in the Americas Best … Continue reading →