Underweight increase risk of Dementia

April 14, 2015 by

dementiaBeing underweight in middle-age may raise the risk for dementia later on, while being overweight or obese may protect against dementia, hints the largest study yet to look at the association between body mass index (BMI) and dementia risk.

“Our findings contradict many but not all previous studies and is currently controversial” Nawab Qizilbash, MBChB, MRCP (UK), head of OXON Epidemiology Ltd, and honorary senior lecturer in epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, told Medscape Medical News.

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Deep Brain Stimulation: New Hope For Alzheimer?

February 22, 2015 by

alzheimersAlzheimer’s disease (AD) could be the next frontier for deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy.

A small phase 1 pilot study showed that some patients with AD who received constant stimulation to the fornix — the principle outflow tract from the hippocampus — had increased hippocampal volume after 1 year.

There was also some evidence that this increased hippocampal volume correlated with cognitive benefit.

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Risk of adjacent segment disease after spine surgery: predictors for future surgery

December 10, 2014 by

spine surgeryA group of researchers examined the risk factors for adjacent segment disease following spinal fusion and non-fusion surgery and published their findings in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

The retrospective analysis examined a consecutive series of 1,358 patients who underwent cervical spine surgery performed by a single surgeon. The procedural breakdown included:

• 1,038 anterior approaches
• 29 posterior approaches
• 28 combined anterior and posterior approaches

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Filed Under: Spine Surgery

Long term cell use linked to Brain Tumor Risk

November 15, 2014 by

cell-phone-useLong-term use of both mobile and cordless phones is associated with an increased risk for glioma, the most common type of brain tumor, the latest research on the subject concludes.

The new study shows that the risk for glioma was tripled among those using a wireless phone for more than 25 years and that the risk was also greater for those who had started using mobile or cordless phones before age 20 years.

“Doctors should be very concerned by this and discuss precautions with their patients,” study author Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden, told Medscape Medical News.

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New hope in the treatment of brain cancer!

October 19, 2014 by

GlioblastomaResearchers at the University of Calgary say a new treatment plan for an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma is showing promise.

A combination of two drugs increased the lifespan of animals in test trials by 30 per cent, according to researchers at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

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Neurosurgeon or Orthopoedic surgeon: who should do your spine surgery?

September 10, 2014 by

spine surgeryA study published in Spine examines how surgeon specialty impacts elective spine surgery outcomes.

The researchers analyzed data from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project Database. There were 50,361 patients included in the study. Neurosurgeons performed surgery on 66 percent; the remaining were treated by an orthopedic surgeon.

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Sleep is IMPORTANT

September 9, 2014 by

Sleeping-girlA good night’s sleep leads to greater consolidation of a newly learned motor task than performing the same task not followed by sleep, new research shows.

“I think sleep has always intrigued a lot of people because not everyone even today believes sleep contributes to useful active processing in the brain,” Karen Debas, PhD, neuropsychologist, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, told Medscape Medical News.

“So the fact that we found sleep contributes to the consolidation of memory is important and to prove that it is doing so is to understand the mechanisms that are taking place during sleep.”

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Low Dose Fish Oil Helpful in the Management of Seizures

September 9, 2014 by

fish-oilAfter several negative trials, the possibility of treating epilepsy with fish oil has seen a glimmer of hope with a new randomized trial suggesting a significant benefit with a lower dose than has previously been tested.

The study, published online September 9 in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 9 and conducted by a team led by Christopher M. DeGiorgio, MD, Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, showed a significant reduction in seizure frequency with the low-dose but not the high-dose treatment vs placebo.

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Gene therapy opens promising alternative in the treatment of primary malignant brain tumors

August 18, 2014 by

GlioblastomaGene therapy to protect blood stem cells from chemotherapy allows more intensive treatment of patients with glioblastoma, researchers say.

“We developed a strategy to successfully shield the marrow and blood cells and thus patients can now get this drug combination with benzylguanine and temozolomide while the marrow and blood cells are protected and shielded,” Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told Reuters Health by email.

“MGMT (methylguanine methyltransferase) in the tumor will inactivate the chemotherapy and thus make the tumor insensitive to chemotherapy,” Dr. Kiem explained. “We can reverse this by disabling MGMT and making the tumor again sensitive to temozolomide using a drug called benzylguanine. Unfortunately disabling MGMT in blood and marrow cells makes them also more sensitive to temozolomide causing low blood counts and preventing the use of this approach.”

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Higher Precision With Mazor Robotics

July 17, 2014 by

Robotics-Endoscopic-Spine-Surgery3Data Presented at IMAST shows over 99 percent accuracy when placing screws with Mazor Robotics Renaissance® Guidance System

ORLANDO, Fla., July 17, 2014 – Mazor Robotics, Ltd. (TASE: MZOR; NASDAQ GM: MZOR), a developer of innovative guidance systems and complementary products, announced results of data being presented July 16-19 at the 21st International Meeting on Advanced Spine Techniques (IMAST) meeting in Valencia, Spain.

An e-poster entitled, Retrospective, Five-Center Analysis of 3,270 Pedicle Screws Placed with Robotic Guidance in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), reports that 223 patients with AIS in five centers, had a total of 3,270 pedicle screws placed using the Renaissance system with over 99 percent accuracy.

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