One in every 20 people will have a single epilepsy seizure at some time in their lives New research shows that nearly one in five people would not employ someone with epilepsy. According to Epilepsy Ireland, most people believe there is still a stigma among the public attached to the condition. Around one in every 20 people will have a single epilepsy seizure, at some time in their lives. Over 37,000 people in Ireland, over five years of age, have a diagnosis of epilepsy. While, 43% of people know someone with the condition, one in ten would not stay, or would not be sure about staying with someone, until a seizure was over. The findings contrast with the fact that epilepsy is the most common, serious neurological condition in Ireland. Despite major advances in treatment, the survey shows that public awareness is poor and negative attitudes towards those with the condition, are a major challenge for people affected. User contributions and/or comments do not, unless specifically stated, represent the views of RT.ie or RT&Eacute. Click here for Terms of use. Go here to read the rest: People with epilepsy face employment bias … Continue reading →

NIH-funded study assessed benefits of targeted clot removal based on brain status The use of advanced imaging shortly after the onset of acute stroke failed to identify a subgroup of patients who could benefit from a clot-removal procedure, a study has found. The randomized controlled trial known as Mechanical Retrieval and Recanalization of Stroke Clots Using Embolectomy (MR RESCUE) was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and was published online Feb. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In patients with ischemic stroke (caused by a blockage in an artery), brain cells deprived of blood die within minutes to hours. Rapidly opening the artery can halt brain cell death. Intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), a drug that dissolves clots has been shown to improve outcomes in such stroke patients. However intravenous t-PA is not effective in many patients with large clots blocking the major brain arteries that cause the most devastating strokes. MR RESCUE investigators tested an invasive clot removal strategy designed to remove clots from these large arteries. Patients in the study were enrolled at 22 centers in the United States within approximately 5.5 hours of … Continue reading →

David Brown, Washington Post Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2013, 3:01 AM Three long-awaited studies have shown that mechanically removing a blood clot from a stroke patient's brain is no more useful than the older treatment of giving an IV dose of a clot-dissolving drug to the whole body. The results of the clinical trials, presented this week at a meeting in Hawaii, shocked and surprised stroke physicians. Many had adopted the more aggressive strategy over the last decade. "For the stroke field, this is a really big deal," Walter Koroshetz, deputy director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, said of the findings, presented over three days at the International Stroke Conference in Honolulu. NINDS paid for two of the trials, one of which cost $27 million. One study took eight years to do because it was so difficult to enroll patients willing to take the chance they'd be randomly assigned to get the older treatment. Practitioners hoped that "endovascular treatment," in which a catheter is threaded into a blocked artery and the clot pulled out, would do for stroke patients what it has done for heart attack patients. In them, going after clots with angioplasty balloons and … Continue reading →