Tag: technique

New technique designed specifically for children gives surgeons another moyamoya treatment option

Moyamoya is rare blood vessel condition that is a major cause of pediatric stroke. Surgical revascularization can be very effective; however, anterior cerebral territory ischemia can occur after treatment, particularly in children with delayed disease progression. The current surgical treatments for anterior cerebral territory ischemia in pediatric patients are challenging: Complex, high-risk procedures haven’t been

New MRI technique can detect early dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier with small vessel disease

Collaborative research between the University of Kentucky (UK) and University of Southern California (USC) suggests that a noninvasive neuroimaging technique may index early-stage blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction associated with small vessel disease (SVD). Cerebral SVD is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment, with a significant proportion of cases going on to develop dementia.

New neuroimaging technique studies brain stimulation for depression

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, was FDA approved in 2008 as a safe and effective noninvasive treatment for severe depression resistant to antidepressant medications. A small coil positioned near the scalp generates repetitive, pulsed magnetic waves that pass through the skull and stimulate brain cells to relieve symptoms of depression. The procedure has few

A technique to produce transplantable livers in the laboratory

Researchers at the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL), hosted by the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) in Brazil, have developed a technique to reconstruct and produce livers in the laboratory. The proof-of-concept study was conducted with rat livers. In the next stage of their research, the scientists will adapt

Cervical cancer: New radiotherapy technique prolongs survival

Patients with locally advanced cervical cancer benefit significantly from an innovative radiotherapy technique co-developed by MedUni Vienna under the direction of Richard Pötter and Christian Kirisits. The technique provides better tumor control and produces fewer side-effects. This is substantiated by the results of the prospective, international, multi-center study, EMBRACE I, conducted under the direction of

New diagnostic technique accounts for patient resilience

Medical diagnoses mostly focus on resolving isolated issues. But fixing one problem may create others, and even invoke an overall health collapse. Scientists now report a new approach to assess the risks of such collapse in humans and other animals using data from wearable sensors. Staying alive requires resilience, the capacity to bounce back from

New imaging technique can spot tuberculosis infection in an hour

Guided by glowing bacteria, researchers have devised an imaging technique that can diagnose live tuberculosis in an hour and help monitor the efficacy of treatments. That’s particularly critical because many TB strains have evolved defenses against standard treatments. Jianghong Rao, PhD, a professor of radiology at Stanford who led the work, says that speedy TB

New technique helps uncover changes in ALS neurons

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered that some neurons affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) display hypo-excitability, using a new method to measure electrical activity in cells, according to a study published in Stem Cell Reports. “The excitability changes observed in these patient neurons most likely represent the early steps in the disease process,” said Evangelos

Scientists develop novel technique to study brain disease

A new tool developed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health has determined, for the first time, how two distinct sets of neurons in the mouse brain work together to control movement. The method, called spectrally resolved fiber photometry (SRFP), can be used to measure the activity of these neuron groups in both healthy