September 4, 2009, 10:32 pm

An Injection to Repair Brain Injury?

According to an article in ScienceDaily, this just may come to pass in the not too distant future, thanks to findings by a Clemson University bioengineer. Ning Zhang, assistant professor of bioengineering, presented her findings at a recent Research Forum in Kansas City.

Zhang shows that an injectable biomaterial gel may help brain tissue grow at the site of a traumatic brain injury. The gel which is made up of a combination of synthetic and natural sources seems to encourage the growth of the patient’s own neural stem cells in the body. Currently the research is showing positive results in adult lab rats: sustained functional recovery.

While human testing is still a ways off (Zhang predicts at least three years), hope is out there.

Clemson University (2009, September 3). Injectable Biomaterial Regenerates Brain Tissue In Traumatic Injuries. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2009, September 4.

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July 24, 2009, 10:15 pm

Post Head Injury Pituitary Workup?

Medpage today reports that new research suggests that moderate to severe brain trauma increases the risk of pituitary problems. Dr Raverot shares that the “results are preliminary, but they confirm the high risk for pituitary disorders after moderate to severe neurologic events, including traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage.” Ischemic stroke probably disturbs pituitary function, however the exact nature of the association has not been thoroughly examined.

What is your pituitary and what does it do?

The University of Maryland Medical Center explains that your pituitary is a gland located at the base of the brain and is no larger than a pea, and is responsible for producing many different hormones. Some of the hormones the pituitary gland produces are those for growth, prolactin (for milk production after giving birth), ACTH (which stimulates the adrenal glands), TSH (to stimulate the thyroid gland), FSH (to stimulate the ovaries and testes), LH (to stimulate the ovaries or testes), melanocyte-stimulating hormone (controls skin pigmentation), ADH (to increase absorption of water into the blood by the kidneys), oxytocin (to contract the uterus during childbirth and stimulate milk production).

As you can see, the pituitary does a lot, and damage to the pituitary can have many different consequences. Screening the pituitary after suffering from a moderate to severe brain injury makes sense.

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July 6, 2009, 9:18 pm

Estrogen may help with Brain Injury

Scientists at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth have been studying the effects of estrogen administered immediately post traumatic brain injury. According to Simpkins’ they have found that the rapid administration of estrogen can protect the brain following injury, and has actually protected against stroke and sudden cardiac arrest as well. “Simpkins’ studies in animals found that rapidly administering a single dose of estrogen, a strong anti-oxidant and an anti-inflammatory drug, following a stroke increases brain cell survival by up to 65 percent.”

These findings are now being tested on human trauma patients in North Texas.

Click here to read the full article

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June 30, 2009, 12:06 pm

Blasts and Brute Force May Be Same to Brain

A recent report from the New York Times suggests that blast-related brain injuries may share some similarities with the repeated concussions suffered by athletes in high-contact sports:

“If protein deposits and tangles appear in the hippocampus area of the brain, for instance, then they would affect short-term memory; appearance in the frontal lobes could impair executive function, and in the cerebellum coordination and balance. The researchers will also be looking at possible genetic factors.”

Click here to read more.

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June 23, 2009, 8:17 am

Epilepsy Risk Post Brain Injury

According to Medpage today a study by Jakob Christensen of Aarhus University Hospital and colleagues shows that there is an increased epilepsy risk for at least 10 years post brain injury. The researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing 1,605,216 medical records for those who had suffered a brain injury, skull fracture and epilepsy. They found that in a comparison to those with no brain injury or fracture the risk of epilepsy was doubled after mild brain injury, such as concussion, seven times higher after severe brain injury, and twice as high after skull fracture.

They also found that brain injury was associated with an increased risk of epilepsy in all age groups, but the risk increased with age for mild and severe injury and was highest among people older than 15 at the time of injury.

The relative risk of epilepsy after mild brain injury was higher among women than among men — 2.49 versus 2.01 — but there was no interaction with sex for severe injury.

Click here to read the full article

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May 13, 2009, 7:43 am

Real Reporting from a Brain Injured Journalist

One of the frustrating things about the media is how it depicts brain injury. Usually the reporting is sentimentalized, dumbed-down, and heartbreakingly disingenuous. But it’s the kind of reporting that garners lots of attention.

In this post, I’d like to give you an inside peek into a report that isn’t getting national acclaim, but offers a much truer depiction than what you might see on network TV.

The acclaimed photojournalist John Trotter was on the job when he became the target of brutal gang violence. Instead of doing what most other media-savvy people do (hide &/or whitewash), he chose to chronicle the event and his treatment in this powerful video:

Watch “The Burden of Memory“

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May 12, 2009, 7:58 am

Smart Houses in Your Near Future?

G.Tech has teamed up with a group of international universities and research Institutes to incorporate its BCI technology into virtual environments.  This technology allows the user to turn light switches on and off, change channels on the TV, turn up the radio, and move around in the virtual environment by thought alone.  The applications of this system are limitless, it can be used to teach paralyzed individuals how to maneuver their wheel-chair by thought alone, and eventually help people with locked-in-syndrome exert control over their own environments – whether it be thinking the light switch “on”, or mentally directing a robot with their thoughts.

How do they do this?  Currently it’s done in a virtual environment, and EEG (Electroencephalogram) equipment, attached to the user’s scalp, monitors the individual’s brain activity.  According to the researchers “after a period of training, the system learns to identify the distinctive patterns of neuronal activity produced when they imagine walking forwards, flicking on a light switch or turning up the radio.”

According to Guger, G.Tech has even come up with a way for individuals to type via thought saying that with practice an individual can achieve a rate up to one letter every eight-tenths of a second – a rate that is similar to typing with one finger.

It’s obvious the future is now, and it’s only a matter of time before these new and wondrous technologies become part of our everyday lives.

Click here to read the full article in Science Daily

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April 29, 2009, 1:32 pm

Overcoming Brain Injury

Heather Aucoin was in an accident 3 years ago and suffered from a brain injury as well as injuries to her face and ankles.  After the brain injury Heather has had problems with fatigue, is easily confused as well as distracted. However, these limitations have not been able to stop Heather’s indomitable spirit.  She wanted to dance.  So she auditioned for and was accepted by Dancestreams Youth Dance Company in Parksville Canada, and has excelled in a challenging sport.

The program is very demanding of its dancers, according to Canada.com “Because of the time limitations, work must continue to move forward each and every week, placing a lot of pressure on the dancers to absorb and maintain steps, counts and corrections from week to week with no opportunity to repeat lessons.” Heather met this challenge by bringing her own video camera to rehearsal, that way she could tape the sequences and then study them on her own during the week.

Her hard work has paid off, she has “been cast in many roles and has gradually taken on more and more responsibility within the group.”

Click here to read the full article

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April 20, 2009, 12:05 pm

Posting to Twitter via Thought?

This may soon be a reality.  WTN writes that that Adam Wilson was able to post 23 characters to Twitter – using thoughts alone.  Wilson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biomedical engineering doctoral student, is trying to perfect a communication system for those who no longer have functional control over their own bodies.  The brain interface was developed in collaboration with research scientist Gerwin Schalk and colleagues (Wadsworth Center in Albany, N.Y. ), Williams (a UW-Madison Assistant Professor of biomedical engineering) and Wilson were able to come up with a new method for communication.  The individual uses a keyboard displayed on a computer screen, and looks for the letter he/she wants to type – apparently when the brain recognizes what it was looking for there is a change in brain activity allowing the computer to understand that you want to select that letter.

Williams hopes the Twitter application is the nudge researchers need to refine development of the in-home technology. “A lot of the things that we’ve been doing are more scientific exercises,” he says. “This is one of the first examples where we’ve found something that would be immediately useful to a much larger community of people with neurological deficits.”

Click here to read the full article

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, 12:01 pm

Is it a Brain Injury or Isn't It?

Recently a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine has caused something of a furor in brain injury circles. In “Care of War Veterans with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury — Flawed Perspectives,” the authors argue that vets are being misdiagnosed with mild brain injury.

While the article makes strong attempts to be scientifically grounded, the entire conundrum of diagnosing a mild brain injury reveals what nobody seems to be discussing: the current classifications for brain injury don’t apply any more. Our understanding of brain injury suggest a much more complex process is at work, and we need a new kind of perspective in order to address it.

While others will undoubtedly grapple with the dilemma of whether MTBI is overdiagnosed or not, brain injury professionals should be calling for more effective screening measures AND a broader understanding of brain injury.

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