Neuroscience
From today's New York Times:
In Latest Robotics, New Hope for Stroke Patients
By AMANDA SCHAFFER
The New York Times
Published: July 10, 2007
Mary O’Regan more or less ignored her left arm for 20 years.
As a sophomore in college, in 1986, she fell off the back of a friend’s dirt bike and hit her head on concrete, later suffering a stroke. After intensive medical and physical therapy, she learned to speak and walk again. She went back to school and then to work. (And, as it happened, two of her brothers ended up marrying two of the nurses who had taken care of her.) Still, much of her left side remained numb, and she did not regain use of her left arm.
Last year, however, Ms. O’Regan, now 40 and living in Westwood, Mass., enrolled in a clinical trial for a new robotic device called the Myomo e100, designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms. The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.
“The device is designed to help get patients over a functional hump” so they can start moving the weakened arm again, said John McBean, a mechanical engineer who developed the technology with Kailas Narendran, an electrical engineer and computer scientist. (The two began the project in 2002, in a graduate robotics class at M.I.T.)
“And the more they are able to use the arm, the more improvement they begin to see,” Mr. McBean continued. “So it’s a virtuous cycle.”
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
- Neuroimaging Studies Of Stroke Rehabilitation
OR: Why is the RSNA Makin' Stuff Up? (Part 2) Here's the next erroneous press release from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA): Robotic Technology Improves Stroke RehabilitationCHICAGO — esearch [sic] scientists using a novel, hand-operated...
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From the BBC:Test 'identifies new stroke risk' Doctors have developed a simple checklist to show if patients who have had a mini-stroke are at immediate risk of a more serious attack. The Oxford University team, writing in the Lancet, said it...
- Abstract Of The Day: Stroke And Cognition
VK Srikanth et al. Progressive dementia after first-ever stroke: A community-based follow-up study. Neurology 2004; 63:785-792. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Prof. Geoffrey A. Donnan, Director, National Stroke Research Institute, Neurosciences...
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Mary Hess, stroke survivor, shares her story of how Penn Medicine’s telestroke program saved her life and gave her more time to enjoy the things she loves... "I would not be sitting here if it wasn’t for them...I really appreciate everything Penn...
Neuroscience
Stroke and the Myomo e100
From today's New York Times:
In Latest Robotics, New Hope for Stroke Patients
By AMANDA SCHAFFER
The New York Times
Published: July 10, 2007
Mary O’Regan more or less ignored her left arm for 20 years.
As a sophomore in college, in 1986, she fell off the back of a friend’s dirt bike and hit her head on concrete, later suffering a stroke. After intensive medical and physical therapy, she learned to speak and walk again. She went back to school and then to work. (And, as it happened, two of her brothers ended up marrying two of the nurses who had taken care of her.) Still, much of her left side remained numb, and she did not regain use of her left arm.
Last year, however, Ms. O’Regan, now 40 and living in Westwood, Mass., enrolled in a clinical trial for a new robotic device called the Myomo e100, designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms. The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.
“The device is designed to help get patients over a functional hump” so they can start moving the weakened arm again, said John McBean, a mechanical engineer who developed the technology with Kailas Narendran, an electrical engineer and computer scientist. (The two began the project in 2002, in a graduate robotics class at M.I.T.)
“And the more they are able to use the arm, the more improvement they begin to see,” Mr. McBean continued. “So it’s a virtuous cycle.”
[ ... Read the full article ... ]
- Neuroimaging Studies Of Stroke Rehabilitation
OR: Why is the RSNA Makin' Stuff Up? (Part 2) Here's the next erroneous press release from the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA): Robotic Technology Improves Stroke RehabilitationCHICAGO — esearch [sic] scientists using a novel, hand-operated...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Aphasia Screening For Stroke Patients
Validation of the language component of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination - Revised (ACE-R) as a screening tool for aphasia in stroke patients. Australas J Ageing. 2011 Sep;30(3):156-8 Authors: Gaber TA, Parsons F, Gautam V Abstract Aim: ...
- Transient Ischemic Attack (tia)
From the BBC:Test 'identifies new stroke risk' Doctors have developed a simple checklist to show if patients who have had a mini-stroke are at immediate risk of a more serious attack. The Oxford University team, writing in the Lancet, said it...
- Abstract Of The Day: Stroke And Cognition
VK Srikanth et al. Progressive dementia after first-ever stroke: A community-based follow-up study. Neurology 2004; 63:785-792. Address correspondence and reprint requests to Prof. Geoffrey A. Donnan, Director, National Stroke Research Institute, Neurosciences...
- Patient Story: Mary Hess
Mary Hess, stroke survivor, shares her story of how Penn Medicine’s telestroke program saved her life and gave her more time to enjoy the things she loves... "I would not be sitting here if it wasn’t for them...I really appreciate everything Penn...