A company has developed a simple blood test to identify most cases of autismbut determining if it really works is not so simple. A company called SynapDx is hoping that a simple blood test will be able to identify most cases of autism in children much faster than current evaluations. At the Consumer Genetics Conference in Boston last week, SynapDx founder and CEO Stanley Lapidus said the company would soon begin evaluating the ability of its diagnostic test, which examines gene activity, to identify children with the disorder. While such a test would be of great value if successful, the concept is "risky," says a company scientific adviser, because it's not yet known whether there is a molecular signal for autism. An estimated one of every 88 children in the United States was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism is referred to as a spectrum disorder because it is probably a mix of several different conditions. Those affected may exhibit a wide range of symptoms, from social awkwardness and unusual obsessions to significant language delays and intellectual disability. Although the cause of the disorder is not completely clear, … Continue reading →

A new drug that could be used to treat stroke patients after stroke surgery has been discovered by researchers from the University of Calgary and Helsinki University. Called NA-1, the drug is reported to reduce the risk of developing stroke after the first stroke surgery. The researchers analysed the data of 185 individuals, aged 18 years or older, from hospitals in Canada and the US between September 2008, and March 2011. Out of the 185 stroke patients, 92 received NA-1 and the remaining 93 were given a placebo. The study found that NA-1 lowers the risk of developing stroke after surgery. Researchers also found that NA-1 reduces brain damage among stroke patients.Patients who had taken NA-1 had fewer ischaemic infarcts (brain damage) than patients, who took placebo, according to the findings published in Lancet. According to Pub Med Health, stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain stops. A stroke is sometimes called a "brain attack." If blood flow is stopped for longer than a few seconds, the brain cannot get blood and oxygen. Brain cells can die, causing permanent damage. In the UK, nearly 120,000 people are affected by stroke every year and nearly 50,000 people … Continue reading →

London, October 8 (ANI): A new drug could reduce the risk of stroke in thousands of patients undergoing brain operations, a new study has suggested. If its benefits are proven in further studies, the treatment could have a major impact on patients undergoing a host of procedures. Small strokes are a common complication arising from operations on the brain, but injecting the drug after surgery was found to reduce the number of affected sites by 40 percent. According to experts, while strokes often cause no harm to the patient, they can be extremely serious and protecting the brain against them could prevent patients suffering severe brain damage. Researchers tested the safety of the drug, known as NA-1, on a group of 185 patients undergoing operations to remove a brain aneurysm - a bulge in an artery which can burst and cause bleeding. Since the procedure limits the blood flow to the patient's brain, it often causes small strokes, resulting in damaged areas of brain tissue known as lesions. Patients administered the drug, which disrupts a protein linked to stroke damage, after surgery and measured the damage to patient's brains using MRI scans. The results showed that those patients who were … Continue reading →

A team of Canadian scientists and clinicians, led by Dr. Michael Hill of the Calgary Stroke Program at Foothills Medical Centre and University of Calgarys Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), have demonstrated that a neuroprotectant drug, developed by Dr. Michael Tymianski at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, located at the Toronto Western Hospital, protects the human brain against the damaging effects of stroke. The study, Safety and efficacy of NA-1 for neuroprotection in iatrogenic stroke after endovascular aneurysm repair: a randomized controlled trial, published online today in The Lancet Neurology, was conducted concurrently with a laboratory study published in Science Translational Medicine, that predicted the benefits of the stroke drug. This landmark clinical trial was a randomized, double blinded, multi-centre trial that was conducted in Canada and the USA. The study evaluated the effectiveness of NA-1[Tat-NR2B9c] when it was administered after the onset of small strokes that are incurred by patients who undergo neurointerventional procedures to repair brain aneurysms. This type of small ischemic stroke occurs in over 90% of aneurysm patients after such a procedure, but usually does not cause overt neurological disability. In the clinical trial, patients were randomized to receive either Tat-NR2B9c or placebo. Those treated with Tat-NR2B9c showed … Continue reading →

Newswise The Methodist Neurological Institutes Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center, the largest stroke unit in Houstons Texas Medical Center, is the first hospital in the United States to receive a comprehensive stroke center certification by DNV Healthcare Inc. DNVs Comprehensive Stroke Center certification was recently approved as a nationally-recognized program, and is based on recommendations by the Brain Attack Coalition, American Stroke Association, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. For the past four years, our stroke team has used 13 quality measures under consideration for a national comprehensive stroke center model. Its gratifying to know that these measures are included in DNVs certification criteria, and that our patients, along with those at all other nationally-recognized comprehensive centers, will receive the same standard of care, said David C. Chiu, M.D., medical director of Methodists stroke center. Chiu, associate professor of neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College, authored a paper on proposed comprehensive stroke center criteria in a 2008 paper in Critical Pathways in Cardiology. The criteria, now included in DNVs certification, includes timeliness of brain imaging, stroke severity score documentation, and measures including morbidity and mortality rates for stroke, cerebral aneurysm, and diagnostic and therapeutic imaging. Methodist has held an advanced primary … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) A team of Canadian scientists and clinicians, led by Dr. Michael Hill of the Calgary Stroke Program at Foothills Medical Centre and University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), have demonstrated that a neuroprotectant drug, developed by Dr. Michael Tymianski at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, located at the Toronto Western Hospital, protects the human brain against the damaging effects of stroke. The study, "Safety and efficacy of NA-1 for neuroprotection in iatrogenic stroke after endovascular aneurysm repair: a randomized controlled trial," published online October 8 in The Lancet Neurology, was conducted concurrently with a laboratory study published in Science Translational Medicine, that predicted the benefits of the stroke drug. This landmark clinical trial was a randomized, double blinded, multi-centre trial that was conducted in Canada and the USA. The study evaluated the effectiveness of NA-1[Tat-NR2B9c] when it was administered after the onset of small strokes that are incurred by patients who undergo neurointerventional procedures to repair brain aneurysms. This type of small ischemic stroke occurs in over 90% of aneurysm patients after such a procedure, but usually does not cause overt neurological disability. In the clinical trial, patients were randomized to receive either Tat-NR2B9c or placebo. … Continue reading →

Canadian researchers have found that injections of a neuroprotective agent called NA-1, which disrupts the action of one of the proteins implicated in stroke appears to be safe for use in humans and had some effect in reducing damage to brain tissue in the study population. The study, published in the journal Lancet, reported that the scientists recorded significantly fewer lesions in the group of patients who were given the drug compared to the control. A release from the journal quotes lead author Professor Michael Hill of the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute in Canada, as saying, "Safe drugs to provide tissue neuroprotection defined as salvage of brain tissue by enhancing its resilience to the restricted blood flow that patients experience during these procedures is a major unmet need in stroke treatment, and translation from animal studies to humans has been markedly unsuccessful so far. Our research, which builds on existing animal studies, suggests that intravenous infusion of NA-1 reduces tissue damage in patients who suffer a small stroke after an operation to repair a brain aneurysm, and further research is now needed to investigate the efficacy of neuroprotection in larger clinical trials."* In a linked Comment in the … Continue reading →