Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has once again received the Get with the Guidelines(r)-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The honor from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association recognizes the use of evidence-based treatment guidelines, best practice tools and resources in treating stroke patients. (more)
Registration is still open for 'BrainTalk,' a free community day on Saturday, April 16 at Eisenhower Hotel & Conference Center in Gettysburg, Pa. Hear brief talks about various nervous system disorders, and have the chance to speak one-on-one with leading neuroscience specialists. Lunch will be provided. Learn more about the event and how to register at PennStateHershey.org/braintalk. (more)
A team of scientists led by Melissa Rolls, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, has peered inside neurons to discover an unexpected process that is required for regeneration after severe neuron injury. The process was discovered during Rolls's studies aimed at deciphering the inner workings of dendrites -- the part of the neuron that receives information from other cells and from the outside world. The research will be published in the print edition of the scientific journal Current Biology on Dec. 21. (more)
The incidence of stroke is on the rise; this year more than 795,000 people will have a stroke -- a 30 percent increase from 1996. This increase is likely related to our lifestyle choices. The good news is that 80 percent of strokes could be prevented with control of the typical stroke and vascular risk factors: high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol (hyperlipidemia), high blood sugars (diabetes mellitus), smoking, alcohol abuse, carotid artery disease and cardiac disease, including atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart beat, with advanced age. (more)
Parkinson's disease is a common neurological disorder in the elderly, and the number of affected people is expected to increase as the population ages over the next decades. The most common primary symptoms of Parkinson's disease include shakes of the hands, arms, legs and jaw; stiffness of the limbs and trunk; slowness of movement; and impaired balance and coordination. The symptoms vary from patient to patient, and not everyone is affected by all of them, according to the latest edition of The Medical Minute, a service of the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. (more)
Led by director Steven J. Schiff and assistant director Bruce Gluckman, Penn State's Center for Neural Engineering is forging ahead with confidence. Awarded a $1 million Biomedical Core Center grant from the National Institutes of Health this fall, and with a custom-designed facility in the new Materials/Life Sciences complex in the works for 2011, Schiff, Gluckman and colleagues are positioning the center to become an innovation leader at the intersection of neural engineering, materials science and medicine. One priority is to find more sensitive, precise and individualized strategies to monitor brain activity and suppress seizures before they strike. (more)
Irregular arm swings while walking could be an early sign of Parkinson's disease, according to neurologists who believe early detection may help physicians apply treatments to slow further brain cell damage until strategies to slow disease progression are available. Xuemei Huang, associate professor of neurology at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine, and her colleagues are studying gait, or the manner in which people walk, to understand the physical signs that might be a very early marker for the onset of the disease. (more)
This syndrome, which made the news after actress Natasha Richardson's recent death, is characterized by a severe brain injury that may at first go unnoticed. According to David Good, head of neurology at Penn State's Hershey College of Medicine, "Talk and Die" is usually caused by a particular head injury called epidural hematoma. After any head injury, he added, it's important to be watchful. "If a person seems to deteriorate, or they become confused or disoriented or less responsive, it is absolutely critical that they go immediately to a hospital." (more)
