October 15, 2008, 5:52 PM CT

Brain-nourishing molecule may predict schizophrenia relapse

A factor that helps optimize brain formation and function may also provide clues about whether patients suffering with schizophrenia are headed toward relapse, scientists say.

Over the next two- and one-half years, they are regularly measuring levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, in the blood of patients with schizophrenia to see if the pattern of their rise and fall is a good indicator that patients are headed for trouble, say Medical College of Georgia researchers.

"If you had something that would give you a better inkling that somebody is going to get ill, that would be extraordinarily helpful," says Dr. Peter S. Buckley, schizophrenia specialist who chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior in the MCG School of Medicine. "It's a little bit of a shot in the dark, but the payoff would be huge," he says of the study that piggybacks on another federally-funded study looking at whether injectable medicine, rather than tablets, can help deter relapses.

Not taking their medicines as prescribed is a big reason patients relapse but science has already shown that BDNF levels can start dropping even when they do, says Dr. Anilkumar R. Pillai, MCG neuroscientist who studies BDNF and other cell-nourishing trophic factors. That drop likely indicates the drug is becoming less effective and a relapse is imminent, the scientists say......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 10:17 PM CT

Searching the Internet increases brain function

UCLA researchers have observed that for computer-savvy middle-aged and elderly adults, searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings demonstrate that Web search activity may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

The study, the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, is currently in press at the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and will appear in an upcoming issue.

"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and elderly adults," said principal investigator Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA who holds UCLA's Parlow-Solomon Chair on Aging. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function." .

As the brain ages, many structural and functional changes occur, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity, and increases in deposits of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which can impact cognitive function.

Small noted that pursuing activities that keep the mind engaged may help preserve brain health and cognitive ability. Traditionally, these include games such as crossword puzzles, but with the advent of technology, researchers are beginning to assess the influence of computer use including the Internet......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 8:25 PM CT

Alzheimer's disease and blood pressure

A new study (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bihy.2008.04.006) published in Bioscience Hypotheses (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/issn/1756-2392), a recently launched Elsevier journal, proposes that some people suffering from Alzheimer's disease experience a reduction in their hypertension because of cognitive decline.

Publications relating to dementia and blood pressure have been evaluated by the paper's author Dr Sven Kurbel of the Osijek Medical Faculty in Croatia. The cognitive problems suffered by some Alzheimer's patients have previously been put down to low blood pressure (arterial hypotension). The hypothesis put forward by Dr Kurbel is that the opposite is true. He suggests that as the patient's memory fails, they forget the causes of anxiety and worry that was causing high blood pressure: failing memory causes hypotension, not visa versa.

High blood pressure itself is a cause of disease, including strokes, so paradoxically, Dr. Kurbel's hypothesis suggests, therapys which alleviate memory loss could affect other causes of illness. If this hypothesis is correct it could have a significant effect on the therapy of conditions such as metabolic syndrome, which involves increased weight and high blood pressure. Dr. Kurbel concludes that "An important question is would reduction of stressful memories and of stress exposure in everyday life help diminish the risk of getting high blood pressure or metabolic syndrome in the years to come."........ Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 14, 2008, 7:54 PM CT

How brain sees what you do not see

Blindsight is a phenomenon in which patients with damage in the primary visual cortex of the brain can tell where an object is eventhough they claim they cannot see it. A research team led by Prof. Tadashi Isa and Dr. Masatoshi Yoshida of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, provides compelling evidence that blindsight occurs because visual information is conveyed bypassing the primary visual cortex. Japan Science and Technology Agency supported this study. The team reports their finding in the Journal of Neuroscience on Oct 15, 2008.

The scientists recorded eye movements of Japanese monkeys that had damage in one side of the primary visual cortex. Training with an eye movement task for 2-3 months enabled the monkeys to move their eyes to the correct direction where an object was even in the affected side of their visual fields. Brain became able to feel where an object was without 'seeing' it. After the training, their eye movements looked almost normal; they discriminated five different directions even in the affected visual field. To investigate how eyes move, the monkeys' eye movements to targets in their affected visual field were compared with those to dark targets in their normal visual field. Both were 'equally difficult to see'. By this trick, the scientists found two differences from the normal: 1) the trajectory of their eye movements was straight and 2) the response time of their eye movement was short. These differences were believed to be due to the damage of eye movement control and decision making, not purely on that of vision. Therefore, the scientists concluded that the monkeys' eye movements after damage in the primary visual cortex were mediated by a qualitatively different vision which is supported by alternative brain circuits bypassing the primary visual cortex......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 9, 2008, 10:27 PM CT

Communication Between Neurons And Muscle Cells

You can't raise a finger without your brain directing muscle cells, and researchers have figured out another reason that commonly works so well.

A neuron sends a message, or neurotransmitter, to the muscle cell to tell it what to do. To get the message, the receiving cell must have a receptor. Oddly, the unstable protein rapsyn is responsible for anchoring the receptor so it's properly positioned to catch the message.

Medical College of Georgia researchers have found what keeps rapsyn in proper conformation.

It is a heat shock protein, one of a large family of molecular chaperones that make sure proteins get where they are needed and do what they should, says Dr. Lin Mei, chief of developmental neurobiology at MCG and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Neuroscience.

Hsp90ß helps stabilize rapysn so receptors can get and stay where needed, as per research reported in the Oct. 9 issue of Neuron. Dr. Mei suspects that other hsp siblings have a similar caretaker role in neuron-to-neuron communication in the brain.

Researchers knew rapsyn's role in getting neuromuscular receptors to aggregate and stay where needed, but they didn't know what stabilized it. "It makes you wonder how to control this naughty boy which is very important," says Dr. Mei, the study's corresponding author......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 8, 2008, 9:39 PM CT

Circadian clock may be critical for remembering

The circadian rhythm that quietly pulses inside us all, guiding our daily cycle from sleep to wakefulness and back to sleep again, may be doing much more than just that simple metronomic task, as per Stanford researchers.

Working with Siberian hamsters, biologist Norman Ruby has shown that having a functioning circadian system is critical to the hamsters' ability to remember what they have learned. Without it, he said, "They can't remember anything".

Though not known for their academic prowess, Siberian hamsters nonetheless normally develop what amounts to street smarts about their environment, as do all animals. But hamsters whose circadian system was disabled by a new technique Ruby and colleagues developed consistently failed to demonstrate the same evidence of remembering their environment as hamsters with normally functioning circadian systems.

Until now, it has never been shown that the circadian system is crucial to learning and memory. The finding has implications for diseases that include problems with learning or memory deficits, such as Down syndrome or Alzheimer's disease. The work is described in a paper published Oct. 1 online in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Ruby is lead author on the paper. Siberian hamsters, also known as dwarf hamsters, are about the size of a mouse......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:37 PM CT

African-Americans may be at higher risk of stroke

Cerebral microbleeds, which are small bleeds within the brain, appear to be more common in African-Americans than in Caucasians, increasing the likelihood of having a stroke, as per a research studyreported in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These types of brain lesions can be an important indicator for stroke.

For the study, 87 people from the Washington, DC, area who had suffered a certain type of stroke, called an intracerebral hemorrhage, underwent brain scans. This kind of stroke involves bleeding in the brain and makes up 10 to 15 percent of all strokes. Scientists also determined the group's risk factors for stroke such as age, high blood pressure and alcohol use. Forty-two of the people were African-American while 45 were Caucasian.

The study observed that African-Americans had 32 percent more microbleeds than Caucasians. African-Americans were also more likely to have these types of lesions in several different areas of the brain. While African-Americans had more lesions in the lower and middle parts of the brain, Caucasians had them most frequently near the surface of the brain.

"Finding racial differences that could be linked with a higher prevalence for these brain lesions may lead to new methods for testing and treating people to prevent stroke," said study author Chelsea Kidwell, MD, with Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, DC, and member of the American Academy of Neurology......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 6, 2008, 10:32 PM CT

Occasional memory loss tied to lower brain volume

People who occasionally forget an appointment or a friend's name may have a loss of brain volume, even though they don't have memory deficits on regular tests of memory or dementia, as per a research studyreported in the October 7, 2008, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study involved 500 people age 50 to 85 with no dementia who lived in the Netherlands. Participants were asked about occasional memory problems such as having trouble thinking of the right word or forgetting things that happened in the last day or two, or thinking problems such as having trouble concentrating or thinking more slowly than they used to.

Participant's brains were scanned to measure the size of the hippocampus, an area of the brain important for memory and one of the first areas damaged by Alzheimer's disease.

Of the 500 people, 453 reported that they had occasional memory or thinking problems, which are also called subjective memory problems, because they would not show up on regular tests of memory and thinking skills.

The study observed that in people with occasional subjective memory problems, the hippocampus was smaller than in people who had no memory problems. On average, the hippocampus had a volume of 6.7 milliliters in those with occasional subjective memory problems, in comparison to 7.1 milliliters in people with no memory problems......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

October 2, 2008, 10:35 PM CT

Musicians use both sides of their brains more frequently

Supporting what a number of of us who are not musically talented have often felt, new research reveals that trained musicians really do think differently than the rest of us. Vanderbilt University psychology experts have observed that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

The research by Crystal Gibson, Bradley Folley and Sohee Park is currently in press at the journal Brain and Cognition

"We were interested in how individuals who are naturally creative look at problems that are best solved by thinking 'out of the box'," Folley said. "We studied musicians because creative thinking is part of their daily experience, and we observed that there were qualitative differences in the types of answers they gave to problems and in their associated brain activity." .

One possible explanation the scientists offer for the musicians' elevated use of both brain hemispheres is that a number of musicians must be able to use both hands independently to play their instruments.

"Musicians may be especially good at efficiently accessing and integrating competing information from both hemispheres," Folley said. "Instrumental musicians often integrate different melodic lines with both hands into a single musical piece, and they have to be very good at simultaneously reading the musical symbols, which are like left-hemisphere-based language, and integrating the written music with their own interpretation, which has been associated with the right hemisphere"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 28, 2008, 8:42 PM CT

'Hub' of fear memory formation identified in brain cells

A protein mandatory for the earliest steps in embryonic development also plays a key role in solidifying fear memories in the brains of adult animals, researchers have revealed. An apparent "hub" for changes in the connections between brain cells, beta-catenin could be a potential target for drugs to enhance or interfere with memory formation.

The results are published online this week and appear in the recent issue of Nature Neuroscience

The protein beta-catenin acts like a Velcro strap, fastening cells' internal skeletons to proteins on their external membranes that connect them with other cells. In species ranging from flies to frogs to mice, it also can transmit early signals that separate an embryo into front and back or top and bottom.

During long-term memory formation, structural changes take place in the synapses the connections between neurons in the brain, says Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. Ressler is a researcher at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center, where the research was conducted, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

"We thought beta-catenin could be a hub for the changes that take place in the synapses during memory formation," says Ressler. "But because beta-catenin is so important during development, we couldn't take the standard approach of just knocking it out genetically"......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 24, 2008, 7:04 PM CT

Not a moment to lose in therapy for acute stroke

In an editorial response to a report in the September 25 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM) on the efficacy of intravenous thrombolysis therapy in the hours after acute ischemic stroke, Patrick Lyden, M.D., professor of neurosciences and director of the UC San Diego Stroke Center, cautions that the study should not be interpreted to mean that such treatment can be withheld for hours or even minutes.

"The risk of withholding such therapy from patients with acute stroke greatly exceeds the risk of giving it," said Lyden. "The potential for reversing the disabling side effects of stroke declines with every passing minute".

The study, ("Thrombolysis with Alteplase 3 to 4.5 Hours after Acute Ischemic Stroke") by Werner Hacke, M.D. et al, reports the findings from the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study III (ECASS III).

The design of this study closely mirrored that of the original National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) trial of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) for acute stroke, a pivotal trial that Lyden helped lead that showed the first proven treatment for stroke. The important exception in the ECASS III trial is that the window of treatment was expanded to a period of three to four and a half hours, in comparison to under three hours in the NINDS trial......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 24, 2008, 6:21 PM CT

Balancing the brain

Neuroresearchers at Children's Hospital Boston have identified the first known "master switch" in brain cells to orchestrate the formation and maintenance of inhibitory synapses, essential for proper brain function. The factor, called Npas4, regulates more than 200 genes that act in various ways to calm down over-excited cells, restoring a balance that is thought to go askew in some neurologic disorders. The findings are reported in the September 24 advance online edition of the journal Nature

Synapses, the connections between brain cells, can be excitatory or inhibitory in nature. At birth, the rapidly developing brain teems with excitatory synapses, which tend to make nerve cells "fire" and stimulate their neighbors. But if the excitation isn't eventually balanced, it can lead to epilepsy, and diseases like autism and schizophrenia have been linked to an imbalance of excitation and inhibition. The creation of inhibitory connections is also necessary to launch critical periods -- windows of rapid learning during early childhood and adolescence, when the brain is very "plastic" and able to rewire itself.

Npas4 is a transcription factor, a switch that activates or represses other genes. The researchers, led by Michael Greenberg, PhD, director of the Neurobiology Program at Children's, demonstrated that the activity of as a number of as 270 genes changes when Npas4 activity is blocked in a cell, and that Npas4 activation is linked to an increased number of inhibitory synapses on the cell's surface......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 18, 2008, 10:39 PM CT

Breakthrough in spinal injury treatment

Manipulating embryo-derived stem cells before transplanting them may hold the key to optimizing stem cell technologies for repairing spinal cord injuries in humans. Research published in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Biology, may lead to cell based therapies for victims of paralysis to recover the use of their bodies without the risk of transplant induced pain syndromes.

Dr. Stephen Davies, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, reported that in collaboration with scientists at the University of Rochester, NY his research team has transplanted two types of the major support cells of the brain and spinal cord, cells called astrocytes. These two types of astrocytes, which are both made from the same embryo-derived stem cell-like precursor cell, have remarkably different effects on the spinal repair process.

Using signal molecules known to be involved in the generation of embryonic astrocytes during spinal cord development, the scientists were able to make pure cultures of two different types of astrocytes from the GRP cells.

When Dr. Davies and his team transplanted these two types of astrocytes into the injured spinal cord, they had dramatically different effects. One type of astrocyte called GDAsBMP was remarkably effective at promoting nerve regeneration and recovery of limb motion when transplanted into spinal cord injuries. However, the other type of astrocyte cell generated called GDAsCNTF, not only failed to promote nerve fiber regeneration or functional recovery but also caused neuropathic pain, a severe side effect that was not seen in rats treated with GDAsBMP......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 15, 2008, 10:08 PM CT

Migraine linked to blood clots in veins

People with migraines may also be more likely to develop blood clots in their veins, as per a research studyreported in the September 16, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

In the condition, called venous thrombosis or thromboembolism, blood clots form in a vein, which can limit blood flow and cause swelling and pain. Those clots can then dislodge from the vein and travel to the heart and the lungs, which can be fatal.

For the study, 574 people in Italy age 55 and up were interviewed to determine whether they had a history of migraine or migraine at the time of the evaluation and their medical records were evaluated for cases of venous thrombosis. The arteries in their necks and thighs were scanned with ultrasounds to check for atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

Of the participants, 111 people had migraine. A total of 21 people with migraine also had one or more instances of venous thrombosis, or 19 percent. In comparison, 35 people without migraine had the condition, or 8 percent.

Scientists do not know why migraine and venous thrombosis are linked. One theory is that the blood of people with migraine may be more prone to clotting.

The study also observed that people with migraine are not more likely to have hardening or narrowing of the arteries, which is contrary to a current theory......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 10, 2008, 10:11 PM CT

Immaturity of the brain may cause schizophrenia

The underdevelopment of a specific region in the brain may lead to schizophrenia in individuals. As per research published recently in BioMed Central's open access journal Molecular Brain, dentate gyrus, which is located in the hippocampus in the brain and believed to be responsible for working memory and mood regulation, remained immature in an animal model of schizophrenia.

Professor Tsuyoshi Miyakawa of Fujita Health University, National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS), and Kyoto University led a research team in Japan, with support from the CREST program of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). First, the team investigated behaviors by conducting a systematic and well-defined behavioral test battery with alpha-CaMKII mutant mice, an animal model of schizophrenia. These mice showed abnormal behaviors similar to those of schizophrenic patients. Next, the team found the dentate gyrus neurons in hippocampus of the brain of these mice were not matured morphologically and physiologically. By a gene expression analysis, changes of gene expression correlation to the maturation of dentate gyrus neurons were also found in the brains of schizophrenic patients. Taken together, the immaturity of the dentate gyrus may be an underlying cause for schizophrenia......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 3, 2008, 7:02 PM CT

Cholesterol drugs lower risk of stroke for elderly too

Elderly people who take a cholesterol drug after a stroke or mini-stroke lower their risk of having another stroke just as much as younger people in the same situation, as per research reported in the September 3, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Even though the majority of strokes and heart attacks occur in people who are 65 and older, studies have observed that cholesterol-lowering drugs are not prescribed as often for older people as they are for younger people," said study author Seemant Chaturvedi, MD, of Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology. "These results show that using these drugs is just as beneficial for people who are over 65 as they are for younger people".

The study involved 4,731 people age 18 and older who had a recent stroke or transient ischemic attack, or mini-stroke. The 2,249 people age 65 and older were in one group, with an average age of 72, and the 2,482 people under age 65 made up the other group, with an average age of 54. Within each group, about half of the people received the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin and about half received a placebo. The participants were then followed for an average of four and a half years......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 2, 2008, 8:08 PM CT

Age-related memory loss tied to slip in filtering information quickly

Researchers have identified a way in which the brain's ability to process information diminishes with age, and shown that this break down contributes to the decreased ability to form memories that is linked to normal aging.

The finding, published in the current online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, fuels the researchers' efforts, they say, to explore strategies for enhancing brain function in the healthy aging population, through mental training exercises and pharmaceutical therapys.

This research, which was conducted by University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley scientists, builds on the team's seminal 2005 discovery ("Nature Neuroscience," October 2005) that the brain's capacity to ignore irrelevant information diminishes with age.

The capacity to ignore irrelevant information -- such as most of the faces in a crowded room when one is looking for a long-lost friend and to enhance pertinent information -- such as the face of a new acquaintance met during the search for the old friend is key to memory formation. This process is known as top-down modulation.

In the 2005 study, the team recorded brain activity in younger and elderly adults given a visual memory test in which they were shown sequences of images (sets of two faces and two scenes), told to remember a specific category, and then asked to identify an image from that category nine seconds later. The scientists, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), determined that the neurons of the older participants (ages 60 to 72) responded excessively to the images they should have ignored, in comparison to the younger adults (ages 19 to 33). This attention to the distracting information directly correlated with how well the participants did on the memory test......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

September 2, 2008, 7:24 PM CT

Gene is likely cause of stroke-inducing vascular malformations

UCSF researchers have discovered that a gene controlling whether blood vessels differentiate into arteries or veins during embryonic development is associated with a vascular disorder in the brain that causes stroke.

The UCSF studies were done in mice, and the new findings are the first to provide information on both the progression and regression of this particular brain disorder, known as BAVM, and to provide molecular clues into the disease, which is not well-understood and chiefly affects young people.

BAVM, for brain arteriovenous malformation, is a vascular disorder causing arteries and veins to be directly connected, rather than through capillaries. This direct connection produces enlarged, tangled masses of vessels that are prone to hemorrhagic rupture, bleeding and stroke. Because they develop most often in growing tissues, BAVMs are responsible for half of the hemorrhagic strokes in children.

Study findings were published in a recent issue (Aug. 5, 2008) of the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

The UCSF team identified the gene, known as Notch, as a potential cause of BAVMs because of its role in directing embryonic blood vessel formation. Using genetic tools, the team "turned on" a constantly active Notch gene in endothelial brain cells, which are the cells lining blood vessels in the brain, and observed that BAVMs were induced. When scientists turned the gene off, the mice exhibited full recovery from the disease's progression......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 8:47 PM CT

Magnesium Sulfate Reduces Risk of Cerebral Palsy

Results of a 10-year study reported in the August 28 issue of the New England Journal (NEJM) observed that magnesium sulfate administered to women delivering before 32 weeks of gestation reduced the risk of cerebral palsy by 50 percent. The Beneficial Effects of Antenatal Magnesium Sulfate (BEAM) trial was conducted in 18 centers in the U.S., including Northwestern Memorial, and is the first prenatal intervention ever found to reduce the instance of cerebral palsy correlation to premature birth.

Magnesium sulfate is traditionally used in obstetrics to stop premature labor and prevent seizures in women with hypertension. The BEAM trial studied the link between magnesium sulfate and cerebral palsy by identifying 2,240 women who were likely to give birth more than two months premature. Half of the women intravenously received magnesium sulfate while the other half received a placebo. Children born to the women in the study were examined at two-years-old, and results observed that the children in the magnesium group were 50 percent less likely to develop cerebral palsy in comparison to children in the placebo group.

"This is a substantial breakthrough in maternal fetal medicine that could positively impact the health of thousands of babies," said Alan Peaceman, MD, chair of the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and an investigator in the study. "After 10 years of studying the effects of magnesium sulfate, it has proven to be a successful method of reducing the outcome of cerebral palsy in premature births"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

August 31, 2008, 8:18 PM CT

Telmisartan reduces outcome of heart attack or stroke

An international study led by Canadian scientists has observed that telmisartan, a medicine used to lower blood pressure, reduced the outcome of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke in people who are unable to tolerate a widely available and effective standard therapy.

Dr. Salim Yusuf and Dr. Koon Teo, professors in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University and clinicians at Hamilton Health Sciences, led the study. Today the research results will be published online by The Lancet and presented at this year's European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich, Gera number of.

ACE inhibitors, or angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, are widely used and effective medications used to lower blood pressure. They work by helping to widen blood vessels to improve blood flow. Approximately 20 per cent of patients who could benefit from an ACE inhibitor stop taking it because of cough, kidney problems, swelling or symptomatic low blood pressure.

Telmisartan is a type of angiotensin-receptor blocker, or ARB. Like ACE inhibitors, telmisartan also lowers blood pressure, but works in a different manner. ARBs block the receptor sites in the body for angiotensin II, a naturally occurring hormone that constricts blood vessels and increases blood pressure......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 27, 2008, 9:13 PM CT

Pregnancy situations have impact on brain development

Brain development in infants who are born very prematurely is still incomplete. Factors that cause premature birth may have an impact on the development of the premature infant's brain both during pregnancy and later on after birth. A project conducted as part of the Academy of Finland Research Programme on Neuroscience (NEURO) is concerned to study brain growth and development invery premature or low-weight infants.

The central nervous system in small premature infants is highly susceptible to damage as the immature organism tries to adapt to the intensive care environment following release from the intrauterine environment. Researchers working on the PIPARI project at Turku University Central Hospital have followed premature low-weight infants and investigated factors impacting the growth and development of their brain as well as their two-year prognosis from pregnancy onwards. A total of 232 pre-term infants have been followed and in comparison to 246 full-term controls. The children will be followed for a total of six years, from birth through to school age.

The results of the project indicate that the redistribution of foetal blood flow, indicative of placental insufficiency, leads to smaller brain volume in preterm infants at term equivalent age. In this situation the foetus directs a larger proportion of the blood flow to its brain......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source

August 27, 2008, 9:06 PM CT

Army personnel show increased risk for migraine

Two new studies show that migraine headaches are very common among U.S. military personnel, yet the condition is frequently underdiagnosed. The studies, appearing in Headache, the peer-evaluated journal of the American Headache Society, examine the incidence among soldiers within 10 days of returning from a 1-year combat tour in Iraq , as well as U.S. Army officer trainees.

The U.S. active-duty military population is composed chiefly of young adults, which is the age group at highest risk for migraine. However, the reported rates are higher than those of similar age and gender in the general U.S. population.

The findings show that 19 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq screened positive for migraine and an additional 17 percent screened positive for possible migraine. Soldiers with a positive migraine screen suffered a mean average of 3.1 headache days per month, headache durations of 5.2 hours and 2.4 impaired duty days per month due to headache. Soldiers with migraine contacted 3 months after returning from Iraq had a mean of 5.3 headache days per month.

18 percent of U.S. Army officer trainees experienced migraine headaches over a 1-year period (13.9 percent for males, 31.4 percent for females) and, of those, 50 percent experienced migraines during a 5-week period of intensive military training. Migraine headaches were found to significantly impede training in 4 percent of all cadets during this time. 76 percent of cadets who screened positive for migraine had never been diagnosed......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 25, 2008, 10:27 PM CT

New hope for stroke patients

If a stroke patient doesn't get therapy within approximately the first three hours of symptoms, there's not much doctors can do to limit damage to the brain.

But now scientists report a technique that potentially could restore functions to patients weeks or even months after a stroke. The technique involves jumpstarting the growth of nerve fibers to compensate for brain cells destroyed by the stroke.

"In the best-case scenario, this would open up the window of time that people could recover and go back to normal functional status," said Gwendolyn Kartje, MD, Ph.D., a professor in the department of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy and department of neurology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood, Ill. and chief of neuroscience research at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, Ill.

Kartje and his colleagues described the experimental approach, called anti-nogo-A immunotherapy, in a recent review article in the journal Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation

Anti-nogo has dramatically improved functions in lab animals that have experienced strokes. And an ongoing clinical trial in Europe and Canada is testing anti-nogo in humans who have suffered spinal cord injuries.

Most strokes are caused by clots that block blood flow to one part of the brain, killing brain cells within hours. The drug TPA can minimize damage by dissolving the clot. But TPA is safe and effective only when given within about three hours of the onset of symptoms. Most patients don't receive therapy within that brief window. Patients typically arrive at the hospital too late, or hospitals do not begin administering TPA soon enough......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

August 18, 2008, 9:16 PM CT

How memory deals with a change in plans

You're about to leave work at the end of the day when your cell phone rings: it's your spouse, asking that you pick up a gallon of milk on the way home. Before you head out the door, though, your spouse calls again and asks you to stop by the hardware store too. Based on your knowledge of the area and rush-hour traffic, you decide to get the milk first and the toilet plunger second. But whoops! The phone rings again. This time, it's your boss, asking you to work late. That means another change of plans.

Adjusting our behavior to such changing circumstances enables us to achieve our goals. But how, exactly, do our brains switch so elegantly and quickly from one well-entrenched plan to a newer one in reaction to a sudden change in circumstances? In the milk-hardware-boss example, do we simply remember a list of streets and turns, or do we remember a more abstract set of "rules" governing the web of relationships between the items we want to buy, our driving route and our relationships with spouse and employer?.

The answer is "both," as per scientists at The Johns Hopkins University, who have learned that two different areas of the brain are responsible for the way human beings handle complex sets of "if-then" rules. The researchers, led by Susan Courtney, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, learned that rules that people must actively remember (in other words, which are not part of their everyday habits) are controlled primarily through the prefrontal cortex, which is in the very front of the brain, beneath the forehead......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source

July 29, 2008, 11:48 PM CT

New Alzheimer's predictors

By combining MRI brain scans and measurements of certain compounds in the cerebrospinal fluid, NYU scientists were able to distinguish individuals who would develop Alzheimer's disease over a two-year period. In a study of 23 people, they found atrophy in areas of the brain involved in learning and memory, and significantly higher CSF levels of phosphorylated tau and other compounds among individuals who would develop Alzheimer's in comparison to those individuals who didn't progress from mild cognitive impairment over the two-year period. This preliminary study suggests that combining these tests could help predict which individuals with mild cognitive impairment are at the highest risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.
Presentation # P3-067.

Big Immune Response to Common Mouth Bacteria Associated with Alzheimer's.
Angela R Kamer, D.M.D., M.S., PhD., Assistant Professor, College of Dentistry, New York University.

In a study investigating the link between Alzheimer's disease and a heightened inflammatory-immune response, NYU scientists observed that twice as a number of subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease tested positive for antibodies in their plasma against a type of bacteria that is usually found in the mouth. The pioneering study supports a growing body of evidence that associates notable immune changes with a means of predicting and classifying Alzheimer's disease. Together with other immune markers linked to Alzheimer's disease, antibodies to these periodontal bacteria could serve to better understand the causes and mechanisms of the disease, the scientists say......... Posted by: Daniel      Read more         Source