Hatfield, England (ots/PRNewswire) - Zonegran(R) (zonisamide) set to offer new option for epilepsy treatment in Russia Eisai, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical companies, announces the expansion of its operations into Russia, with the approval of its first product - the epilepsy treatment, Zonegran(R) (zonisamide). Eisai's entry into the Russian healthcare marketplace is part of the company's plan (HAYABUSA) to have a presence in the top 20 pharmaceutical market regions and make contributions to more than 500 million patients by 2015. The Russian pharmaceuticals market constitutes the 11th largest in the world and is expected to see high growth going forward.[1] Zonisamide is expected to be available across Russia as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of adult epilepsy patients with partial seizures, with or without secondary generalisation by the end of Eisai's financial year 2012 (30 March 2013). The availability of this therapy is significant as the successful treatment of partial-onset seizures (the most common type of epilepsy) remains a challenge. Although new to the Russian marketplace, zonisamide is an established anti-epileptic therapy and has been available in Europe since 2005. Of note is that recently the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) issued … Continue reading →

A simple EEG test may be all that is needed to find autism in children, says a new study. Researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, in a study of 1000 children, were able to find patterns in brain activity in those who have autism, reported Fox News. An EEG test, or Electroencephalography, looks at electrical activity in the brain using electrodes that are fitted on to the scalp of the patient. Autism is difficult to detect and appears differently with varying severity in people. A common symptom is difficulty with social interaction. Read more on GlobalPost:3D printing - Your body parts made to order. According to Medical News Today, the study found that those children with autism had poor short range connectivity in the left hemisphere of the brain. They also found increased connectivity in other regions. BBC reported that researchers suspect that the brain's increased connectivity in some parts were compensating for reduced connectivity in other parts. The study may help diagnose autism earlier in life and even test whether treatment for the illness is working. View post: Autism can be diagnosed with a simple EEG test, says study … Continue reading →

Public release date: 26-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Debbe Geiger Debbe.Geiger@duke.edu 919-660-9461 Duke University Medical Center DURHAM, N.C. The clot-busting medicine, tPA (tissue plasminogen activator), is safe to use in acute stroke patients already on the home blood thinner warfarin, according to researchers from Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). This study helps allay previous concerns that tPA was too dangerous to use in patients on home anticoagulation and would lead to high risk for potentially fatal intracranial bleeding. "To date, we have no randomized trials or large cohort studies to guide us," says Ying Xian, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at Duke, and first author of the study published today in JAMA. "Our large national study found no statistically significant increase in risk, which supports using intravenous tPA in warfarin-treated patients following stoke if their INR is less than or equal to 1.7." The International Normalized Ratio (INR) measures the rate at which blood clots while taking anti-clotting medications like warfarin. The Duke researchers also found almost half of warfarin-treated patients who might have qualified for tPA following stroke did not receive treatment, according to DCRI Director Eric Peterson, M.D., the paper's senior author. "We noted … Continue reading →