neurologist
MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Norma Wooley checked into Loyola University Hospital on a recent Monday morning for brain surgery to repair a life-threatening aneurysm.
She went home on Tuesday, cured of the slurred speech, drooping face and worst headache of her life.
Choosing to have aggressive brain surgery after suffering a severe stroke generally improves the patients' lives and allows them to live longer, according to research by neurologists at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
A new comprehensive review by researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), McGill University and the University of Cambridge, England provides vital insights into the neurological basis of addiction by investigating Parkinson's disease patients, who in some instances develop various addictions when undergoing medical treatment.
Diagnosing acute stroke is a high-pressure decision. The speed with which treatment is delivered makes all the difference. Early treatment can stop brain damage, but if treatment is given inappropriately, it can dangerously increase the risk of bleeding in the brain.
Memory loss, cognitive impairment, brain cell degeneration and cell death were prevented or reversed in several animal models after treatment with a naturally occurring protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
Mayo Clinic neurologists have discovered a drug application smart enough to alleviate orthostatic hypotension -- problems with sinking blood pressure when standing up from a sitting position -- without the unwanted effect of also causing patients' blood pressure to soar when lying down.
"This is a significant step forward for these patients," says Phillip Low, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and lead study investigator. "This would be a good drug to provide the first line of treatment."
When it comes to making noise, both parrots and humans rely on extremely specialized vibrating organs in their throats. Now scientists at Indiana University and Leiden University in The Netherlands have shown for the first time that parrots, like humans, also can use their tongues to craft and shape sound. ''This is the first direct evidence that parrots are able to use their large tongues to change the acoustic properties of their vocalizations,'' said IU Bloomington neurologist Roderick Suthers, who participated in the research. ''The basic idea here, we believe, is that motor control of tongue movements is an important part of communication, just as it is in humans.''
Boys are 28 percent more likely than girls to have a stroke, and black children are more than twice as likely to have a stroke as other ethnic groups, according to a new study. Researchers identified 2,278 first admissions for childhood stroke in a 10-year period in California by examining a statewide hospital discharge database. Children were one month through 19 years of age and were classified by their parent or guardian as white, black, Hispanic, Asian or other. Boys made up 51 percent of the population, and girls made up 49 percent.
The supplement dehydroepiandrosterone, or DHEA, which has been touted by some as an anti-aging hormone and a treatment for diseases such as cancer, AIDS, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, showed no effect for Alzheimer's disease patients who took the supplement for six months, according to a study published in the April 8 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. DHEA is a hormone produced naturally in the adrenal glands. The body then converts it into the hormones estrogen and testosterone. DHEA as a supplement is made from plant chemicals.
A neurologist has used an advanced form of brain imaging to identify changes in small regions of the brains of living Parkinson's disease patients for the first time. These scientists analyzed positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the brains of 41 Parkinson's patients and 16 normal individuals obtained at the Hammersmith Hospital, part of the Imperial College of Medicine in London, England. The scans focused on two small areas found deep in the brain called the locus coeruleus and raphe, areas that control attention and wakefulness. The analysis found positive evidence of degeneration of nerve cells in these areas.
A neurologist at the University of California at San Francisco says stroke in neonates and children is severely under-recognized, with about 1 case per 4,000 live births. About 6 percent of those children will die, 20 to 35 percent will go on to have another stroke, and more than two-thirds of survivors will have neurological deficits or seizures.
Results of an animal study published in the journal Science raise the possibility that the use of the rave fave drug Ecstasy ? methylene-dioxymethamphetamine ? can damage brain cells. The same cells, in fact, that are destroyed by Parkinson?s disease.
"We don't know if human beings develop the same effects we describe in monkeys and in baboons," Dr. George Ricaurte, a Johns Hopkins neurologist, told Reuters. "The broader issue is, are there hundreds of cases of unexplained parkinsonism in MDMA users? We don't know because we haven't looked."
The Reuters article also contains the following quotation, reproduced below only marginally out of context: "[A]s you might imagine, it is not easy to get a baboon to take an oral dose of a drug."
