7 August 2013 Last updated at 04:37 ET A new class of drug treatment has been approved for the most common form of epilepsy for sufferers in Wales. It is thought between 20,000 and 30,000 people in Wales have epilepsy with around 1,500 new cases being diagnosed each year. The decision by the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group means access to a drug called Fycompa which can help some people control their seizures. Charity Epilepsy Action said it welcomed new treatments. Charlotte Lawthom, a consultant neurologist based in Newport and the clinical lead in epilepsy at Aneurin Bevan Health Board, said it was hoped the drug would help around a third of patients whose seizures are not well controlled. She said: "For those people who have uncontrolled epilepsy, life is difficult. "There are lots of restrictions, they can't drive and there are safety issues because you can come to major harm on seizures. "The longer you have been having seizures, the worse things can tend to get. "The difference about this particular drug is that it acts in a novel place in the brain. That might mean that for some people that is going to be the drug that works … Continue reading →

MIT Medical adds gender reassignment and autism therapy to employee plans August 7, 2013 MIT Medical adds gender reassignment and autism therapy to employee plans On Tuesday, Jul. 30, MIT Medical announced the addition of two new healthcare benefits to MIT employees who subscribe to an MIT medical plan. These extended benefits cover Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy for the treatment of early childhood autism, as well as Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) for the treatment of gender identity disorder. The first of these benefits provides care for children ages three to six, an age group that is currently lacking in comprehensive autism treatment. Current programs provide early intervention to infants under the age of three and specialized education programs for school-age children, neglecting the age range in between. These benefits will become available to employees and their dependents on Aug. 16, and MIT Medical is currently considering extending these benefits to MIT students and their dependents. In addition, MIT is announcing a new long-term care enrollment option with a new insurer, Genworth Life Insurance Company, which it joined after prior insurer John Hancock stopped accepting new applications for coverage in Dec. 2011. Genworths open enrollment period for this new benefit … Continue reading →

Scientists have found the biological patterns that will enable autism to be diagnosed in children as young as 12 months. Research into mapping gene networks that disrupt brain cell production will be presented to the Asia Pacific Autism Conference in Adelaide today. The discovery represents a major breakthrough in autism research and is the basis for a blood screening test currently being developed. Autism affects about one in every 100 children with varying severity, but identifying the early signs can be tricky. A professor of neurosciences at the University of California, Eric Courchesne, says his new research will advance the field. "For years I've wondered what might be the systems that cause autism to come about in the first place, and I have to say, this is a very exciting finding," he said. He says the sooner a child is diagnosed with autism, the better the outcomes from treatment. "By coming up with early detection and early screening methods, it will eventually be possible to detect and diagnose autistic kids at a much younger age, perhaps one or two years old instead of at three, four or five," he said. "That means they'll get treatment earlier, which means they'll have … Continue reading →

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Stroke treatment target is beaten 10:33am Wednesday 7th August 2013 in Health & Wellbeing HOSPITAL staff in York have beaten Government targets by administering a clot-busting drug to their 200th stroke patient. The treatment, known as thrombolysis, can prevent further brain damage and has been available at York Hospital since 2008. It is now available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and is led by specially trained consultants backed up by senior nurses. A drug is used to dissolve the clot in the brain and it increases the chances of a good recovery if administered early. Carol Croser, lead stroke nurse with York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: The service is having a huge positive impact on the care we provide, allowing us to see and treat more patients, and 30 per cent of them will make a better recovery with the drug than without it. The trust has seen a steady rise in patients coming forward for thrombolysis. The aim is for them to be treated within four-and-a-half hours of symptoms starting and within 30 minutes of arriving at hospital. Read this article: Stroke treatment target is beaten … Continue reading →

Newswise Philadelphia, Pa. (August 7, 2013) Despite recent discouraging results, endovascular treatment is still a "reasonable" treatment option for selected patients with acute stroke, according to a commentary in the August 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. A special article in the August Neurosurgery suggests that the US supply of neurosurgeons is inadequate to meet the demand, while a new study finds no evidence that obesity causes worse outcomes in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke. Endovascular Therapy Does Have Benefits in Some Stroke Patients In the commentary, Dr. Alexander A. Khalessi of University of California, San Diego, and colleagues provide clinical perspective on endovascular treatment of stroke with large vessel occlusion (LVO). These procedures use nonsurgical endovascular techniques to extract the clot blocking blood flow to the brain. Three recent, highly publicized studies reported that endovascular treatment doesn't improve outcomes, compared to standard care. "However, endovascular intervention did in fact demonstrate benefit when used in the correct clinical context within these trials," Dr. Khalessi and coauthors write. They note endovascular treatment provided better results in … Continue reading →

Aug. 7, 2013 Despite recent discouraging results, endovascular treatment is still a "reasonable" treatment option for selected patients with acute stroke, according to a commentary in the August issue of Neurosurgery. A special article in the August Neurosurgery suggests that the US supply of neurosurgeons is inadequate to meet the demand, while a new study finds no evidence that obesity causes worse outcomes in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a life-threatening type of stroke. Endovascular Therapy Does Have Benefits in Some Stroke Patients In the commentary, Dr. Alexander A. Khalessi of University of California, San Diego, and colleagues provide clinical perspective on endovascular treatment of stroke with large vessel occlusion (LVO). These procedures use nonsurgical endovascular techniques to extract the clot blocking blood flow to the brain. Three recent, highly publicized studies reported that endovascular treatment doesn't improve outcomes, compared to standard care. "However, endovascular intervention did in fact demonstrate benefit when used in the correct clinical context within these trials," Dr. Khalessi and coauthors write. They note endovascular treatment provided better results in patients with LVO stroke confirmed by imaging studies, and in patients with more severe stroke. From this perspective, "[C]urrent data strongly support the reasonable offering of … Continue reading →