BrainAndSpinalCord.Org Blog
Although epilepsy can result from genetics, traumatic head injury is the leading cause of acquired epilepsy in young adults and is often difficult to manage. According to Futurity, while brain cooling has been known for its neuroprotective abilities, a new animal study found that mild passive focal cooling of the perilesional neocortex can prevent chronic, spontaneous and recurrent seizures that often result from brain injury.
Researchers used a rodent model of acquired epilepsy in which animals develop symptoms that are characteristic of the brain disorder after a head injury that would similarly cause epilepsy in humans. The rodents, which developed recurrent seizures, were randomized to either a mock-...
Read More »Almost 1.7 million Americans seek medical attention every year for acute head injuries, but many that show up at the emergency room are treated and sent home. One in six patients, however, will develop long-term disabilities, and it’s difficult to assess which patients are at greater risk for persistent injuries. According to Science Daily, although CT scans have long been the standard technique for evaluating traumatic brain injuries, a new study reveals that MRIs may be better at predicting long-term outcomes.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center followed 135 people treated for mild traumatic brain injuries over the past two years. The patients were treated...
Read More »Although many researchers have focused on the effects of mild traumatic brain injury in adult patients, a new study focused on brain structure changes in children. Researchers found that even after children no longer exhibited symptoms of the injury, their white brain matter continued to change even months later. According to Science Daily, children who suffer from a traumatic brain injury may be more susceptible to injury and further complications since their brains are at a different developmental stage than adult patients.
Andrew Mayer, PhD, along with his colleagues at the Mind Research Network and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, conducted a study on children who were between the ages of 10 and 17. Using an advanced imaging technique...
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