UNC launches study of liver injury caused by drugs
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of five clinical centers nationwide to receive funds from the National Institutes of Health to study why good medications are sometimes bad for the liver. During the next seven years, the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network, or DILIN, will study patients who have suffered severe liver injury caused by prescription and over-the-counter m...Brain-injury rehabilitation depends on acetylcholine circuitry
The ability of the brain to recover from such injury as stroke or trauma depends on a particular circuitry of neurons that "talk" to one another using the brain chemical acetylcholine, researchers led by James Conner and Mark Tuszynski in the Neural repair Group at UCSD have discovered. Their finding in rats could help enhance rehabilitation to recover from such injuries by leading to the develop...Stem cell treatment improves mobility after spinal cord injury
A treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells improves mobility in rats with spinal cord injuries, providing the first physical evidence that the therapeutic use of these cells can help restore motor skills lost from acute spinal cord tissue damage. Hans Keirstead and his colleagues in the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UC Irvine have found that a human embryonic stem cell-derived t...Combination therapy leads to partial recovery from spinal cord injury in rats
Combining partially differentiated stem cells with gene therapy can promote the growth of new "insulation" around nerve fibers in the damaged spinal cords of rats, a new study shows. The treatment, which mimics the activity of two nerve growth factors, also improves the animals' motor function and electrical conduction from the brain to the leg muscles. The finding may eventually lead to new ways...Study Finds Moderate Hypothermia A Safe Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury In Kids
A first-of-its-kind multi-center trial has shown that cooling the body can have positive affects on children who suffered traumatic brain injury. The study's lead investigator, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh neurosurgeon P. David Adelson, MD, and fellow researchers determined that induced moderate hypothermia initiated after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a safe therapeutic inte...Back injury cured by engineers
According to engineers at Cleavland University, people with back injury use the wrong muscles and thereby put themselves at risk of further problems. Back injury is a common problem. People who have had a back problem tend to find it recurs. Researchers at the Biodynamics Laboratory have found that this is because they tend to protect their injury by creating a big stress on their spine afterward...Alzheimer's followed by head injury
Research carried out in England has buttressed the suggestion that head injuries may be linked to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.Doctors at the National Institute on Aging in the UK have analysed the cases of soldiers who suffered head injuries// during World War II. They found that those who suffered moderate head injuries were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's while those who...Vitamins suppress artery injury after transplant
According to a new study, Vitamin C and E supplements protect the coronary arteries from narrowing after heart transplant. Heart transplantation can be a life-saver// but, the vessels linking the new heart let the patient down by becoming blocked. If only a way could be found of blocking this process known clinically as arteriosclerosis. Now doctors at The Hopkins Hospital in Boston, US, believe...New methods to prevent injury of patients
According to researchers at the Hopkins University, Dallas, new ways should be adopted for patients' safety in hospitals. You can get injured in hospital, just as you can on the road and it may be that some of the more recent approaches to road safety can help people in hospital too.// Doctors at the Hopkins University suggest that what's needed is an approach which concentrates on the context of...