Archive for May, 2008
SCI Cure: Creepy Fish May Offer Clues…
Just looking at these things makes my skin crawl. I don’t know how the Europeans can eat them.
I’m talking about the lamprey, a jawless fish that uses its suction-cup mouth to attach itself to other fish. Once attached, the lamprey’s impressive collection of scary looking teeth go to work and bore into its host, sucking out its flesh and drinking its blood. Despite the terrifying nature of this creature (which will surely give me nightmares tonight), it may play an important role in finding a cure for spinal cord injury.
Apparently, lampreys’ spinal cords are capable of spontaneously regenerating after injury. Researchers in Columbia, MO are currently studying this miraculous ability and looking for ways to apply it to humans. The belief is that the primitive fish have fewer channels through which calcium can enter the damaged areas of the spinal cord, thus preventing the build-up of thick scar tissue. Read more here.
Certain types of brain injury have traditionally been nearly impossible to physically detect. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed a new way of interpreting MRI data that could change that.
This new way of measuring is able to detect damaged caused by the sheering of nerve cells in the brain. According to the senior author of the paper, this type of brain injury may account for up to half of all traumatic brain injuries from car accidents. Read more here.
Brain-related illness currently costs the US $1.3 trillion dollars a year (healthcare costs, lost income). Republicans and Democrats are joining together to support a new bill that aims to fix this massive problem. According to the article, the idea is increase Federally-funded research, as well as eliminate much of the red tape that keeps new treatments from reaching the public. Read more here.
Spinal decompression following a spinal cord injury has long been known to be beneficial. Decompressing the spinal cord prevents a lot of secondary damage to the cord. Exactly when decompression should be done, however, has been a point of controversy. Many experts have said that decompression should be accomplished within 24 hours of injury, while others say that decompressing that early is dangerous.
A new study suggests that not only is early decompression safe, it is amazingly beneficial compared to delayed compression. After 6 months, 24% of patients who received decompression within 24 hours of injury improved more than 2 ASIA grades compared with 4% of patients from the delayed group. Read more here.
