Alzheimer’s is related to the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain, so any serious attempt at dislodging these plaques may help reverse the progression of the disease. The perennial problem with delivering drug therapies to treat brain conditions is the blood-brain barrier that prevents most molecules from penetrating through its defenses. (Read more...)
Tag: Neurology
Microsoft and VA Rolling Out Xbox’s with Adaptive Controllers at Rehab Centers
If you’ve been stuck recovering in a hospital for a long period of time, you may know how delightful video games are for killing time. Injured veterans, usually people that don’t enjoy being stuck in one place and like exciting challenges, often don’t get to benefit from video games because of the disabilities that got […]
VitalMinds from Philips to Control Delirium in ICU
Patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) often suffer through delirium, including experiencing disorientation and witnessing hallucinations. Going through delirium seems to negatively affect future outcomes, in addition to being a hindrance to receiving proper medical care while hospitalized. For these reasons acute delirium should be dealt with, bu (Read more...)
Rice Students Develop Non-Invasive Intracranial Pressure Sensor to Monitor Infants
Infants that experience injury or that have hydrocephalus may have swelling or fluid build-up, which can result in a high intracranial pressure (ICP). Because there are serious, life-long consequences that may result, monitoring the ICP may help doctors monitor infants, diagnose hydrocephalus, and help decide when to take interventional measures. T (Read more...)
UC Davis First to Get Canon’s Ultra-High Resolution CT
Clinicians at the University of California, Davis Health are now scanning patients using an Ultra-High Resolution CT scanner, the only of its kind in the United States. The Aquilion Precision from Canon Medical Systems is able to resolve things down to the 150 micron level, allowing for diagnostic insights previously impossible. The capability is m (Read more...)
Imperative Care Gets FDA Clearance for ZOOM Stroke Clot Remover
Imperative Care, a company based in the Silicon Valley area, won FDA clearance for its ZOOM Aspiration System for removing stroke-causing clots. The system is designed to work particularly well with Imperative’s access catheters, which are long and highly flexible devices made to reach deep into the brain. The ZOOM is comprised of the ZOOM [& (Read more...)
Brain-Machine Interface Can Create Synthetic Speech Based on Brain Activity
Researchers at UC San Francisco have a developed a brain-machine interface that may allow speech-impaired patients to “speak” through the device. The researchers have described the system as a stepping stone to neural speech prostheses. The system monitors the brain activity of a user and then converts this to natural sounding speech us (Read more...)
Synaptive Medical to Release MRI for Head Scans in Emergency Rooms
Synaptive Medical, a company based in Toronto, Canada, will soon be releasing its Evry device, an MRI machine dedicated to performing head scans in the emergency room. The first installation of this unique device will be at the QEII Health Sciences Centre (QEII) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At QEII it will be used as part […]
Electric Stimulation Drastically Improves Memory of Older Folks
The performance of our working memory starts to go down right around the time we finish residency. The older we get, the more difficulty we have forming new memories and holding on to them for a long time. Because it’s still a mystery how the memory system of our brains works, a decline in its […]
First Drug-Free Option for ADHD Cleared in America
For the first time, children in the United States will have a non-drug option for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The FDA just cleared the Monarch external Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (eTNS) System from NeuroSigma, a Los Angeles, California company, to treat ADHD in kids between 7 and 12 years old. The system has already (Read more...)
INNOVO Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulator for Urinary Incontinence Coming to U.S.
Atlantic Therapeutics, a company out of Galway, Ireland, will soon be releasing its INNOVO transcutaneous electrical stimulator to treat stress urinary incontinence in women. The device was FDA approved late last year as the first transcutaneous stimulator with such an indication. It delivers electric current through the body toward muscles that co (Read more...)
Stentrode Minimally Invasive Brain-Computer Interface Going on Trial
High fidelity brain-computer interfaces generally require the placement of an implant beneath the skull, a highly invasive and potentially dangerous procedure. A new device, developed at the University of Melbourne in Australia, combines the ease of delivery of a vascular stent with the capabilities of a neural array, and it is about to be tried [& (Read more...)
3D Printed Custom Prostheses with Integrated Sensors for Improved Function and Comfort
Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a 3D-printed prosthetic device with integrated electronic sensors to assess pressure distribution between a limb and the device itself. The sensors provide data that help the researchers to improve the device for added comfort and functionality. Their approach may lead to more affordable and effective cus (Read more...)
Scientists Discover Way to Tune Deep Brain Stimulation Therapies
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is already being used to treat all kinds of mental disorders, including depression and addiction, and some neurological diseases, such as Parkinson’s. The technology is still in its early stages, since physicians have a great deal of difficulty achieving consistent results. Scientists at the Picower Institute at M (Read more...)
New CNS Drug Delivery System by Alcyone Lifesciences Given Breakthrough Designation by FDA
Alcyone Lifesciences recently obtained Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA for their novel implantable intrathecal bolus drug delivery catheter and port system, the ThecaFlex DRx System. The system is intended for use in conditions that require prolonged medication administration directly into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), such as some ca (Read more...)
Short Wavelength Ultrasound Helps Drugs Get Inside Brain Safer
Getting drugs to treat maladies in the brain is hampered by the blood-brain barrier, a protective shield that makes sure only the right chemicals pass through. Ultrasound has become a promising way of opening up pathways in the blood-brain barrier to let drugs in, but it has come with accompanying side effects. These include letting […]
Neural Probes for Brain-Computer Interfaces Mimic Real Neurons
Brain-computer interfaces, those that could restore function in severely disabled people and give them ability to control robotic arms and other devices, depend on neural probes implanted into the brain. These technologies tend to work pretty well at first, but over time they draw attention of the surrounding immune system and the brain’s def (Read more...)
Real-Time Implantable Glutamate Sensor To Help with Neurotrauma, Other Conditions
The neurotransmitter glutamate seems to play an important part in a number of psychophysiologic processes. Migraines after spinal cord injuries, for example, are common typically due to a release of high concentrations of glutamate. Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases also tend to show higher glutamate levels in patients. Tracking the (Read more...)
New Microscope Sees Large Groups of Neurons in Living Brains
Most current methods of looking at the activity of the brains of living animals are very limited in their field of view and/or frame rate. This makes it difficult to understand the complex activity taking place inside the brain that involves more than one small region of the organ. This is all rapidly changing as […]
Light and Sound Induce Brainwaves to Clear Brains of Amyloid Plaques
Alzheimer’s disease has no cure at this point. Only a few therapies that try to slow the progression are available, but there’s a light, and some sound, at the end of the tunnel. Researchers at MIT and Georgia Tech have now shown they can reduce the buildup of amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer’s […]