Neurology News and Research

Latest Neurology News and Research

Close monitoring needed in year after traumatic brain injury

Patients are at particularly high risk for developing epilepsy during the first year after traumatic brain injury, a study shows.

9 Nov 2012

Teleconcussion for diagnosis and management of mild TBI in athletes

Concussion is a common disorder estimated to affect no fewer than 1.7-3.8 million people in the U.S. each year. Many more people with concussion likely do not seek medical care for symptoms of concussion and may suffer long-lasting, progressive, and profoundcognitive, psychiatric, and neurologic effects.

9 Nov 2012

Dopamine improves long-term memory

The feel-good hormone dopamine improves long-term memory. This is the finding of a team lead by Emrah D-zel, neuroscientist at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the University of Magdeburg.

9 Nov 2012

Community-based brain injury education program may increase children's use of bicycle helmets

A 30-minute brain injury education program taught in the hospital may increase children's use of bicycle helmets, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

9 Nov 2012

Sensory substitution devices provide visual information to the blind via existing senses

Common wisdom has it that if the visual cortex in the brain is deprived of visual information in early infanthood, it may never develop properly its functional specialization, making sight restoration later in life almost impossible.

8 Nov 2012

Nanofiber technique to build new nerves from stem cells

Every week in his clinic at the University of Michigan, neurologist Joseph Corey, M.D., Ph.D., treats patients whose nerves are dying or shrinking due to disease or injury.

8 Nov 2012

University of Tübingen heads Neuromics consortium

Work has begun on Neuromics, a major project headed by Tübingen's Professor Olaf Riess; the project beat out ten other first-class applications to attain €12m euros in EU funding over five years.

8 Nov 2012

Brain bleeds in premature babies: an interview with Edward Ahn

Premature babies are born during their third trimester and they are vulnerable to having brain bleeds because their brains are not completely developed. There are some fragile blood vessels that are present in every developing infant, but when the babies are born early, these blood vessels can be subject to changes in blood pressure and changes in breathing patterns and, due to their fragility, they can develop a hemorrhage.

6 Nov 2012

Physical exercise may help preserve mobility in Parkinson’s patients

Aerobic and resistance exercise significantly improve fitness, gait speed, and muscle strength in patients with Parkinson’s disease, shows research published in the Archives of Neurology.

6 Nov 2012

Studies shake up Alzheimer’s hypotheses

Two studies in people at genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease reveal very early changes in brain structure and function that may actually precede amyloid beta deposition.

6 Nov 2012

Comprehensive review article on baroreflex sensitivity after SCI

Spinal cord injury (SCI) can disrupt the body's sensitive signaling mechanisms that control blood pressure, breathing, and oxygen delivery to the heart and other organs during changes in body position. Cardiovascular (CV) disease is a leading cause of illness and death following SCI, and changes in baroreflex sensitivity-the body's ability to detect and respond to changes in blood pressure-may be predictive of a CV event.

6 Nov 2012

Study shows how local anesthetics can improve motor skills of patients after stroke

Painkilling drugs that make many therapies possible are a blessing for patients. Thanks to modern anesthetics, not only can surgical operations be conducted without causing pain, they are also used for various diagnostic procedures. Anesthetics can be very useful in therapies for stroke patients, as psychologists and physicians of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) and the University Hospital Jena are now able to prove.

6 Nov 2012

Study compares effectiveness of CABG surgery with PCI for adults with diabetes and heart disease

Adults with diabetes and multi-vessel coronary heart disease who underwent cardiac bypass surgery had better overall heart-related outcomes than those who underwent an artery-opening procedure to improve blood flow to the heart muscle, according to the results from an international study. The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

5 Nov 2012

Sleep experts advise people to reset sleep habits when they reset clocks

On Sunday morning, the clocks will fall back to mark the official end of daylight savings time. Northwestern Medicine sleep experts warn that the one hour time shift can be disruptive to sleep patterns, but that it also offers an excellent opportunity to evaluate and improve sleep patterns.

3 Nov 2012

Study shows anxiety-promoting parental behaviors affect children

Parents with social anxiety disorder are more likely than parents with other forms of anxiety to engage in behaviors that put their children at high risk for developing angst of their own, according to a small study of parent-child pairs conducted at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

3 Nov 2012

Adding angiogenesis inhibitor to anti-HER2 drugs extends survival in mice with breast cancer

Adding an angiogenesis inhibitor to treatment with a HER2-inhibiting drug could improve outcomes for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer who develop brain metastases. In their report published online in PNAS Plus, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators report the first preclinical study combining antiangiogenic and anti-HER2 drugs in an animal model of brain metastatic breast cancer.

3 Nov 2012

Hospital for Special Surgery physical therapist offers marathon recovery tips

Close to 47,000 runners have spent the past several months training for the ING New York City Marathon. Once they have completed the race and achieved their goals, there are measures they can take to facilitate recovery, decrease post-race discomfort, and return to running without injury.

3 Nov 2012

Advanced breast cancer that has spread to the brain could be treated with drug combination

The sizeable and increasing proportion of women with advanced breast cancer whose disease has spread to the brain could be effectively treated systemically with a combination of two drugs, sparing them the debilitating neurological side effects of whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT), suggests new research published Online First in The Lancet Oncology.

2 Nov 2012

Compounding pharmacies rarely get tough punishments; Another firm recalls drugs

USA Today examines how officials have dealt with charges of misconduct at the pharmacies in the past. Meanwhile, a compounding pharmacy, which is owned by the same company that owned the plant linked to the meningitis outbreak, is recalling its products after an FDA review.

2 Nov 2012

PET scans allow scientists to study link between caffeine and neurodegenerative disorders

Molecular imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) has enabled scientists for the first time to visualize binding sites of caffeine in the living human brain to explore possible positive and negative effects of caffeine consumption.

2 Nov 2012