Home Calcutta News.Net Wednesday 21st March, 2012 (IANS) Thirtythree-year-old epilepsy patient Shalini Arora's condition was deteriorating with each passing day as the medication which had helped her for years finally failed. It was then that a team of doctors installed a pacemaker in her brain providing much needed relief to her. In the specialized 10-hour-long procedure, called 'Deep Brain Stimulation', a wire, as thin as a strand of hair, was implanted in the specific area of her brain that controls discharges going to and through the brain to all limbs. Impulses in the brain were then supplied and controlled with an externally programmed pacemaker implanted below her left collar bone. "We have achieved a new milestone with this breakthrough treatment by implanting a pacemaker as a cure for intractable epilepsy. It has been never done in Asia before," said Alok Gupta, head, Department of Epilepsy, Artemis Health Institute (AHI), Gurgaon. "She will be completely fine within the next three months," added Gupta. The patient started getting epileptic fits when she was 18 months old. Till the age of 12, medicines kept her seizures under control but as she grew older, the frequency of fits increased. Each episode lasted for approximately … Continue reading →

CLAREMONT, CA--(Marketwire -03/21/12)- Autism supporters can get pampered for a good cause during Cielo Mio Spa & Salon's "Spa Day for Autism Speaks" fundraiser in Claremont on Saturday, March 31, 2012, in observance of World Autism Awareness Day April 2 and Autism Awareness Month in April. Cielo Mio Spa & Salon will offer: Cielo Mio Spa & Salon raised and donated $1238 to Autism Speaks in 2011, and over $700 in 2010. "We are proud to offer a relaxing way to raise funds for Autism Speaks and this very worthwhile cause," says Thomas Vuq, owner of Cielo Mio Spa & Salon. For more information on the fundraiser, visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cielo-Mio-Spa-Day-for-Autism-Speaks/203909856285823 Cielo Mio Spa & Salon is located at 101 North Indian Hill Blvd #c2-200 in Claremont. For questions or to make a reservation, contact (909) 621-5140 or email@cielomiospa.com. Additionally, Cielo Mio Spa and Salon will be the featured spa during the 10th Anniversary Los Angeles Walk Now for Autism Speaks to be held at the Pasadena Rose Bowl on April 21, 2012. The spa will donate massage services from 8 to 10:30 a.m. in the Walk's Grand Club, for walkers who raise $1,000 or more. ABOUT CIELO MIO SPA & SALON: … Continue reading →

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Build-A-Bear Workshop, the interactive retailer of customized stuffed animals, announced today that it will raise funds for Autism Speaks with the help of Guests throughout the month of April. This is the eighth consecutive year that Build-A-Bear Workshop has supported the charity, which funds research into the causes, prevention and treatments for autism and advocates for the needs of individuals with autism and their families. Guests can support Autism Speaks by donating $1 (or more) when they check out at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores in the United States or online at buildabear.com. In Canada, Guests may purchase purple satin hearts for $1 throughout the month of April to support Autism Speaks. Guests can also give back at Bearville.com, the companys virtual world and entertainment destination and from April 1 through June 30th, by a percentage of the purchase price of Bearville Outfitters Virtual Stuff Game Cards to Autism Speaks when they activate their cards. Since 2004, Build-A-Bear Workshop has raised more than $545,000 to support Autism Speaks. Build-A-Bear Workshop is dedicated to supporting causes that matter most to our Guests, including autism spectrum disorders that affect children and their families, said Maxine Clark, Build-A-Bear Workshop founder and chief … Continue reading →

New figures collated by the Royal College of Physicians show eight per cent of stroke patients now receive the treatment, called thrombolysis. Experts say some 20 per cent of patients are clinically suitable for the drugs, which have to be administered within about four-and-a-half hours of a stroke to be effective. The rise follows a push, as a result of the 2007 National Stroke Strategy, to increase use of clot-busting drugs. Studies show thrombolysis can reduce the chance of death and serious disablity in stroke. An estimated 150,000 people have a stroke in Britain every year, while they account for about 53,000 deaths. The audit suggests that most stroke patients who do not receive thrombolysis are failing to do so because they do not get to a hospital's stroke unit in time. Just over half (53 per cent) are admitted to a stroke unit with four hours. A third are first admitted to other parts of a hospital before being referred to the stroke unit, which often means they get there too late for clot-busting drugs treatment. The RCP also expressed concerns that poorer performing hospitals may be refusing to submit information - leading to an overly-rosy picture. Professor Tony … Continue reading →

By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 19:04 EST, 20 March 2012 | UPDATED: 19:04 EST, 20 March 2012 About 150,000 Britons have a stroke each year Stroke patients admitted to hospital 'out of hours' wait twice as long to be assessed and suffer delays in getting brain scans and a bed, according to a new report. The study, covering NHS services in England and Northern Ireland, found 'good evidence' that people admitted on weekends, evenings and bank holidays suffer worse outcomes than those admitted during routine hours. Researchers found these patients wait twice as long on average to be assessed by a member of a stroke team (typically 188 minutes compared to 87 minutes for those admitted in hours). The delay in being given a dedicated stroke bed is also longer for patients admitted out of hours (234 minutes compared to 211 minutes) as is the delay to receiving a brain scan (170 minutes compared to 120 minutes). Accessing prompt care and treatment is essential to reducing the risk of death and disability from stroke, which affects around 150,000 people in the UK each year and kills about 53,000. The data further showed that patients who suffer a stroke while already … Continue reading →

Public release date: 21-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center STANFORD, Calif. Investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that removing a matched set of molecules that typically help to regulate the brain's capacity for forming and eliminating connections between nerve cells could substantially aid recovery from stroke even days after the event. In experiments with mice, the scientists demonstrated that when these molecules are not present, the mice's ability to recover from induced strokes improved significantly. Importantly, these beneficial effects grew over the course of a full week post-stroke, suggesting that, in the future, treatments such as drugs designed to reproduce the effects in humans might work even if given as much as several days after a stroke occurs. The only currently available stroke treatment tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA must be given within a few hours of a stroke to be effective, and patients' brains must first be scanned to determine whether this treatment is appropriate. Moreover, while tPA limits the initial damage caused by a stroke, it doesn't help the brain restore or replace lost connections between nerve cells, which is essential to recovery. The … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2012) Investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown that removing a matched set of molecules that typically help to regulate the brain's capacity for forming and eliminating connections between nerve cells could substantially aid recovery from stroke even days after the event. In experiments with mice, the scientists demonstrated that when these molecules are not present, the mice's ability to recover from induced strokes improved significantly. Importantly, these beneficial effects grew over the course of a full week post-stroke, suggesting that, in the future, treatments such as drugs designed to reproduce the effects in humans might work even if given as much as several days after a stroke occurs. The only currently available stroke treatment -- tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA -- must be given within a few hours of a stroke to be effective, and patients' brains must first be scanned to determine whether this treatment is appropriate. Moreover, while tPA limits the initial damage caused by a stroke, it doesn't help the brain restore or replace lost connections between nerve cells, which is essential to recovery. The mice in the study had been genetically bioengineered to lack certain molecules that one of … Continue reading →