'research' Neuroscience (SNI) posts

Before they learn to crawl or walk, about 10,000 babies every year in the United States will develop a condition that will change how they will do just that. Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological condition caused by a brain injury before birth, during delivery or before a child’s second birthday. An estimated 800,000 Americans live with CP.

The most common symptom in CP is spasticity, an increase in muscle tension that impairs proper movement. Abnormal postures or movements, weakness or loss of muscle control and rigidity are also part of the constellation of CP signs and symptoms. While physical therapy remains the cornerstone for treatment, new medications and therapies for CP are being developed to help improve and manage symptoms.

Currently, Swedish Neuroscience Institute is participating in a study to determine the safety and tolerability of one such medication. Dalfampridine (AMPYRA ®) is a medication currently used to help improve walking speed in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. This phase I clinical trial aims to evaluate AMPYRA’s® safety, tolerability and its effect on sensorimotor function of adults with CP. The study will look at how single and multiple doses of the medication have on CP patients, including:

• Hand strength
• Manual dexterity
• Walking speed
• Gait

There is no cure for cerebral palsy. Therapies for CP ...

Swedish Neuroscience Institute was awarded a 7-year, $2.2M grant by the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (NINDS) to participate in the NeuroNEXT program, a national consortium of 25 neuroscience centers of excellence that will conduct early-stage clinical trials. John W. Henson, MD, FAAN, and Daniel S. Rizzuto, PhD, will lead the effort at Swedish. Swedish Neuroscience Institute was the only non-university hospital chosen to participate, highlighting the value of Swedish’s investments in research and clinical infrastructure. For more information about NeuroNEXT click here

David Newell, M.D., neurosurgeon and co-executive director of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI), co-authored the cover article in the September Journal of Neurosurgery on the results of a study using ultrasound for the treatment of brain hemorrhage. The study involved 33 patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage who were screened for inclusion in a SNI clinical study known as “SLEUTH” (Safety of Lysis with Ultrasound in the Treatment of Intracerebral and Intraventricular Hemorrhage). Read the abstract and full text of the article. Read background information on the study. Watch a related video on WebMD.

The Spring 2011 edition of BrainWaves is now available online.

BrainWaves is the newsletter of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute. Published quarterly, BrainWaves provides information about neurological conditions treated at the Institute, and also profiles the programs, services, and new initiatives of the institute and its staff.

Also check out our past editions of the BrainWaves newsletter.

SNI is leveraging communication tools that deliver information to patients, referring physicians and the public as a crucial part of providing care at the advancing edge of neu­rological knowledge. The goals of these tools are two-fold. One goal is to update established patients and their doctors regarding the latest developments in our programs and centers. The other is to lower the barrier for patients and physicians who are facing a new neuro­logical problem to discover tertiary subspe­cialty care.

A new SNI communication tool

Dan Rizzuto, Ph.D., director of SNI research, and John Henson, M.D., recently launched the SNI blog to complement other commu­nication efforts and to provide a communication outlet for the staff of SNI. The SNI blog offers brief notes about advances in neurological care provided in SNI’s centers, as well as news items about the institute that are of interest to our patients and referring physicians.

Blog content is more dynamic than Web content. Search engines are able to detect targeted key words within each entry, which helps direct highly relevant Web traffic to the blog. This aids in the dissemination of infor­mation to patients and physicians. Viewers also can subscribe to an e-mail notification system that will alert them to newly posted material.

Other SNI communication tools

Migraine is a primary headache dis­order that causes significant suffering in approximately 13 percent of the popula­tion of the United States. It accounts for an estimated $23 billion in annual cost to the economy through health-care expenses and lost productivity.

Two major features of migraine are migraine aura (MA) and headache. MA occurs in nearly one-third of migraine pa­tients and consists of one or more focal neurological symptoms that develop gradually over 5-20 minutes and persist for less than 60 minutes. MA typically precedes development of migraine headache.

Several years ago single-center retrospective analyses first reported an apparent association between partial or complete relief of migraine symptoms and transcatheter clo­sure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) for secondary stroke prevention (Reisman M, et al., 2005). The fora­men ovale normally serves as a one-way valve in the interatrial septum for physiologic right-to-left shunt in utero. Complete fusion of interatrial septae normally occurs by two years of age. When septae fail to fuse, how­ever, the PFO is a potential tunnel that can be opened by reversal of the interatrial pressure gradient. PFO is the most common form of right-to-left circulatory shunt (RLS).

The Winter 2010 edition of BrainWaves is now available online.

BrainWaves is the newsletter of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute. Published quarterly, BrainWaves provides information about neurological conditions treated at the Institute, and also profiles the programs, services, and new initiatives of the institute and its staff.

Also check out our past editions of the BrainWaves newsletter.