Neurology News and Research

Latest Neurology News and Research

New tool to detect Alzheimer's early

Doctors have long known that smell is one of the first senses to fail as Alzheimer's begins its slow and incurable progression. Tracking the process whereby a person loses their ability to smell could play a pivotal role in early detection and treatment of Alzheimer's. And now researchers at Columbia have developed a tool that will aid early detection.

12 Jan 2005

Myriad Genetics initiates phase 3 clinical trial of Flurizan

Myriad Genetics announced today that it has initiated enrollment in a Phase 3 human clinical trial of its lead therapeutic candidate, Flurizan (MPC-7869), in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

12 Jan 2005

Corticosteroids can be beneficial in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Corticosteroids can be beneficial in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and can be offered as a treatment option, according to the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society in a new practice guideline published in the January 11 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

10 Jan 2005

Weight loss may be an early sign of dementia

Dementia-associated weight loss begins before the onset of the definite dementia symptoms and accelerates by the time of the diagnosis, according to a study in the January issue of Archives of Neurology.

10 Jan 2005

Medical device innovations - fabricating the future

Two large pieces of metal lie on the floor of what looks like a mini-factory in the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. The whirring machinery here stamps out prototypes of medical devices imagined by clinicians and researchers to help with diagnostic testing or surgical procedures.

9 Jan 2005

Antibiotics protect nerves in mice by turning on genes

A family of antibiotics that includes penicillin may help prevent nerve damage and death in a wide variety of neurological diseases, including Lou Gehrig's disease, dementia, stroke, and epilepsy, Johns Hopkins researchers have found.

6 Jan 2005

Restless legs syndrome is underdiagnosed in kids

A new Mayo Clinic study has for the first time established rates of restless legs syndrome in children, finding that almost 6 percent of children seen in Mayo's sleep clinic have the disease.

28 Dec 2004

Significant advance in understanding the human genome

An Oregon Health & Science University-led development of a technique for identifying control elements that drive the expression of genes in brain cells could unleash the disease-fighting potential of the much-hailed human genome.

28 Dec 2004

People with migraine headaches report more angina, but not more heart disease

People with a history of migraines and other headaches lasting at least four hours are more likely to report suffering from the chest pain doctors call angina than people who do not experience such headaches, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study concludes.

28 Dec 2004

Indian curry may be the next Alzheimer's weapon

A dietary staple of India, where Alzheimer's disease rates are reportedly among the world's lowest, holds potential as a weapon in the fight against the disease.

28 Dec 2004

May soon be possible to identify people at risk and even to treat a heart problem with a drug that works on the brain

Sudden cardiac death from emotional stress may be triggered by uneven signals from the brain to the heart, according to a study by University College London (UCL) scientists published in the January issue of Brain.

23 Dec 2004

Botox may be a possible treatment for sufferers of Tourette's syndrome

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston are using botulinum toxin type A (Botox) to treat the neurological disorder, which can cause involuntary motor and vocal tics.

21 Dec 2004

Pacemakers could play a future role in protecting epilepsy patients

Results of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how interruptions to the heart’s rhythm is an under-reported consequence of epileptic seizures, and that the use of cardiac pacemakers by some epilepsy patients could play a future role in protecting against sudden unexplained death.

20 Dec 2004

Annual decline in cognitive functioning is similar in patients with Parkinson disease and dementia and patients with Alzheimer disease

The average annual decline in cognitive functioning is similar in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and dementia and patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), according to an article in the December issue of The Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

13 Dec 2004

Ads for full-body scans to detect potential diseases, called into question

A burgeoning industry that sells full-body scans to detect potential diseases - without a doctor's referral - is running advertisements that frequently include unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of getting CT and MRI scans, while rarely providing information about the technology's limitations and risks.

13 Dec 2004

Odor identification test, strong predictor of Alzheimer's Disease

The inability to identify the smell of lemons, lilac, leather and seven other odors predicts which patients with minimal to mild cognitive impairment (MMCI) will develop Alzheimer's Disease, according to a study presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annual meeting.

13 Dec 2004

Migraine sufferers are twice as likely to suffer a stroke than those who don't experience migraines

In the first review of its kind, researchers in Canada and the US looked at 14 studies which investigated an association between stroke and migraine. They found that the risk of stroke for migraine sufferers was 2.16 times that for non-sufferers.

13 Dec 2004

Study looks at muscle repair and resilience

Healthy military personnel and muscular dystrophy patients are at opposite ends of the spectrum when is comes to muscle strength and resilience. However, a new University of Iowa study may provide insights that improve muscle health for both these groups.

7 Dec 2004

Month of birth linked to risk of multiple sclerosis

In the northern hemisphere, being born in May is linked to an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis later in life, while being born in November carries the lowest risk, finds a new study published on bmj.com today.

6 Dec 2004

Important genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Two Hershey, Pa., researchers were part of a team that has uncovered what may be an important genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

6 Dec 2004