Archive for the ‘Neurology’ Category

Swedish researchers are reporting positive outcomes in a study examining the use of a device called RhinoChill, which cools the brains of heart attack patients by pumping coolant into the patient’s nose during CPR. In patients where resuscitation efforts began within 10 minutes of cardiac arrest researchers found that 59.1% of cooled patients and 29.4% of standard care patients survived to hospital discharge; 45.5% of cooled patients and 17.6% of standard care patients were neurologically intact at hospital discharge. The results also suggest that the earlier the cooling is started the better. When cooling efforts were delayed, there was no significant difference in survival when compared to those who did not receive nasal cooling. During a heart attack the heart is unable to properly pump blood to the brain (and other vital organs) which can lead to subsequent brain injury. [via Medline Plus]

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Today’s Daily Dose comes from the current issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers found, after following over 238 thousand women over the course of 40 years, that women who had a BMI of 30 or greater at the age of 18 had more than twice the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS), compared to women with a BMI between 18.5 and 20.9. “Our results suggest that weight during adolescence, rather than childhood or adulthood, is critical in determining the risk of MS,” said study author Kassandra Munger, ScD, of the Harvard School of Public Health. The study authors theorize the link between obesity and MS may be that obese women tend to have lower vitamin D levels (higher vitamin D levels are thought to reduce the risk of MS). In addition, fatty tissue can produce substances thought to affect immune and cellular function which may be associated with MS. [via Medical News Today]

Calculated your BMI.

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The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden released the latest results from the Prospective Population Study of Women, which has been following the health status of 1,500 women since the 1960s. Blood analysis has shown that middle-aged women with high levels of the amino acid homocysteine are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease years later. As well, the risk of any type of dementia for these women was 70% higher than women with the lowest levels of homocysteine. It’s unclear whether the relationship between Alzheimer’s and homecysteine is direct or indirect. If, in fact, future studies support this claim homocysteine levels may be an easy way to determine those at risk even before the onset of symptoms. [via EmaxHealth]

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Research presented this week at the Neuroscience 2009 meeting in Chicago revealed an interesting side effect of internet use on older brains. Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles found that frequent internet use among the elderly – even those who only recently started using the web – increased brain functioning beyond their baseline. By comparing novice users to seasoned internet veterans the researchers found that even after just one week of using the internet, the novice users’ brains showed activity in areas important for working memory and decision making – activity that wasn’t apparent on brain scans prior to engagement with the web. [via Medical News Today]

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Fact or fiction? Losing one’s ability to use a particular sense will heighten the other senses. Neuroscientists at McGill University, home of the world-renowned Montreal Neurological Institute, set out to test this idea and discovered that in certain circumstances blindness can, in fact, heighten the other senses. By testing blind and sighted subjects for pitch perception and their ability to locate sounds, researchers found that blind subjects generally scored higher, not surprisingly. However, they also discovered that those who were born blind performed the best, while those who became blind as young children were slightly worse, and those who lost their vision after age 10 did no better than the sighted subjects. The theory is that a young brain could be rewired so that visual-processing areas were used for other purposes. And sure enough, by looking at MRI scans of subjects’ brains, they discovered that blind subjects who performed the best were using both the visual and auditory regions of their brains. [via New York Times]

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Skinny, tight jeans are in fashion and leading to a rise in what’s being called the “tight jean syndrome“, a condition where tight-fitting clothing compresses nerves in the groin and thigh region causing pain and sensations of stinging, burning and numbness. The medical term for this condition is Meralgia Paresthetica and the nerve involved is called the lateral cutaneous nerve. Aside from tight jeans, other causes include tight belts, seat belt trauma from motor vehicle accidents, pregnancy and weight gain. The diagnosis is usually made after x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, or EMG studies show no other cause for the pain. Various treatments are available including pain medicines, neurologic medications, injections and, of course, taking the pressure off of the nerve by weight loss and not wearing tight-fitting pants or belts.

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Researchers from University of Michigan and Wayne State University are publishing the results of their study on the effects of triglycerides on diabetic neuropathy, a condition whereby nerves are damaged due to the progression of diabetes, often resulting in numbness, tingling, and pain in the feet, hands, legs and arms. Triglycerides are a type of fat that’s produced by the body. It’s a standard component to the “cholesterol test” which almost every person has had done. Elevated triglycerides can play a role in cardiovascular disease, and now this new study is suggesting that patients with high levels of triglycerides are more likely to experience worsening of their neuropathy. This is important because until now doctors couldn’t necessarily predict which patients will have a decline in their neuropathy. Now we may be able to target those patients with elevated triglycerides in hopes of slowing disease progression.

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Hearing is one of the most often overlooked aspects of a physical exam. Physicians rarely ask patients about their hearing, and most people never think about getting their hearing checked (at least half of all Americans have not had a hearing exam within the past five years). Enter uHear (TM), a hearing test application for the Apple iPhone. The authors claim that the program can identify potential hearing loss, especially among the predominantly young population that uses the device. This is the group most at risk for hearing loss with 84 percent saying they’ve turned up their MP3 players loud enough to block out noise in everyday situations such as at home, on the street, or while on transportation. This is enough to cause long term hearing loss. Currently, it is believed that there are at least 30 million Americans with hearing loss and a great many of them are under the age of 35. Read more.

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Researchers in Japan examined levels of lithium in drinking water and noted that suicide rates were significantly lower in those areas with the highest levels of the element. Lithium is a naturally occurring element that can be found in tap water and is often used to treat mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder and acute mania. So should lithium be added to our drinking water? Not quite yet. There are no large-scale studies to demonstrate feasibility or safety in using lithium to this extent. However, the idea is one which will garner considerable debate. Like many medications it is yet unknown how lithium works in in the brain to treat mood disorders.

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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers published in the journal Neurology yesterday that migraines and other types of headaches can be related to temperature and weather. Looking at seven years of emergency room data, researchers found a correlation between onset of headache and higher mean ambient temperature during the 24 hours before coming to the ER. Also, low barometric pressure (often related to storms) 48 to 72 hours prior to emergency room visits was also linked to increased risk of headache.

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