October 2010 Briefing - Neurology
Here are what the editors at HealthDay consider to be the most important developments in Neurology for October 2010. This roundup includes the latest research news from journal articles, as well as the FDA approvals and regulatory changes that are the most likely to affect clinical practice.
Associations Found Between ADHD and Adulthood BMI
FRIDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Adolescents who report symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be at risk for obesity in adulthood, according to research published online Oct. 26 in the International Journal of Obesity.
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NFL Management of Concussion More Conservative Since 2002
FRIDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- The most recent six years of National Football League (NFL) concussion data, published online Oct. 1 in Sports Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach, shows only a slight decline in the incidence of concussions but documents more conservative management by team doctors in their return-to-play recommendations.
Video, TV, Gamer Violence Desensitizes Teenage Boys
FRIDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Adolescent boys who watch violent movies or television programs or play violent video games may become desensitized to aggression, which could promote aggressive attitudes and behaviors, according to a study published online Oct. 7 in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
CDC: Second Dose of Meningitis Vaccine Recommended
THURSDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel has recommended that 16-year-olds get a meningitis booster shot, as the vaccine does not appear to last as long as previously thought.
Coffee, Tea Consumption Linked to Lower Glioma Risk
THURSDAY, Oct. 28 (HealthDay News) -- Coffee and tea consumption is associated with a lower risk of glioma, according to research published in the November issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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Sepsis in Elderly Linked to Lost Cognition, Functionality
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Elderly patients who are hospitalized for severe sepsis are at increased risk of substantial new cognitive impairment and diminished functionality, according to a study in the Oct. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Smoking in Midlife Linked to Later Dementia Risk
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Individuals who smoke heavily in midlife appear to have a higher risk of dementia -- including Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia -- decades later, according to research published online Oct. 25 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Primary Care Trails Other Specialties in Hourly Wages
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Primary care physicians have substantially lower hourly wages than other specialists, and although most physicians find Medicare reimbursement inequitable, they show little consensus on how to reform it, according to two studies published in the Oct. 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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Barbershop Program Linked to Blood Pressure Benefits
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- A program in which barbers with predominantly African-American clients conduct blood pressure monitoring and referral may improve hypertension control among black men, according to research published online Oct. 25 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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New Bivalent Poliovirus Vaccine Appears Effective
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- A novel bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (bOPV) against poliovirus types 1 and 3 appears to be superior to trivalent OPV (tOPV) and non-inferior to monovalent type 1 OPV (mOPV1) and mOPV3, according to a study published online Oct. 26 in The Lancet.
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In Healthy Adults, Narcolepsy Biomarker Predicts Poor Sleep
TUESDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- In the absence of clinical narcolepsy, healthy people who are positive for the genetic narcolepsy marker allele DQB1*0602 have more fragmented sleep and respond poorly to chronic partial sleep deprivation (PSD), according to research published in the Oct. 26 issue of Neurology.
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Autism Prevalence Rising Rapidly in Some Schools
MONDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- In Wisconsin, the number of children with autism is increasing in school districts with low baseline prevalence, while other school districts are seeing a leveling off in their numbers, according to research published online Oct. 25 in Pediatrics.
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Vaccination Rate Down in Privately-Insured Children
MONDAY, Oct. 25 (HealthDay News) -- Vaccination rates among children with private health insurance have decreased -- possibly because of unproven fears that vaccines cause autism -- and rates among children with Medicaid have increased, according to the new State of Health Care Quality report released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
New Guidelines for Recurrent Stroke Prevention Published
FRIDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A joint committee representing the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association has published updated evidence-based recommendations on the prevention of ischemic stroke among survivors of ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack; the statement has been published online Oct. 21 in Stroke.
Neuro/Endothelial Effects of Sleep Apnea Coexist in Children
THURSDAY, Oct. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Cognitive dysfunction and endothelial dysfunction usually coexist in children with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), raising the possibility of using the simple measurement of microvascular postischemic reperfusion of the forearm as a screen for cognitive defects as well, according to research published online Oct. 18 in Pediatrics.
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Alcohol, Marijuana Use Linked to Youths' Cognitive Problems
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Heavy alcohol consumption, as well as marijuana use, appears to affect cognitive development in adolescents, according to research published online Oct. 19 in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
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Pradaxa Approved for Atrial Fibrillation
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help prevent stroke in people with a type of abnormal heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation.
Less Than Half of Encephalitis Due to Infectious Diseases
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Less than one-half of encephalitis cases in England were found to be attributable to infectious diseases, with the cause of encephalitis unclear in more than one-third of patients with a poor prognosis, according to a study published online Oct. 18 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
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DHA Supplements Don't Prevent Postpartum Depression
TUESDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The results of the large, multicenter DOMInO (DHA to Optimize Mother Infant Outcome) trial do not support routine docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation for pregnant women to reduce depressive symptoms or to improve cognitive or language outcomes in early childhood, according to research published in the Oct. 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Invasive Dental Procedures May Up Vascular Event Risk
TUESDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Whether due to inflammatory effects or to a brief cessation of daily aspirin or other antiplatelet therapy, invasive dental treatments appear to be associated with a transient increased risk of a vascular event, particularly in the first four weeks after surgery, according to research published in the Oct. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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Homocysteine, B12 Associated With Alzheimer's Risk
TUESDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Serum levels of homocysteine (tHcy) and holotranscobalamin (holoTC) -- the active form of vitamin B12 -- may be useful in determining the risk of, and preventing, Alzheimer's disease (AD), with higher holoTC levels being a protective factor, according to research published in the Oct. 19 issue of Neurology.
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FDA Approves Botox for Chronic Migraine Treatment
MONDAY, Oct. 18 (HealthDay News) -- On Friday, Oct. 15, 2010, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of onabotulinumtoxinA (Botox) injection for the prevention of headaches in adult patients with chronic migraines.
Epidemiology of Multiple-, Single-Child Autism Described
FRIDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Though some families have a single child with autism spectrum disorder, other families have multiple autistic children or otherwise normal children with some autistic traits, suggesting differing genetic bases for the condition, according to a study published Oct. 1 in The American Journal of Psychiatry.
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Cervical Spine Procedure Safe on Outpatient Basis
FRIDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- One-level anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) may be safely performed on an outpatient basis with a four-hour postoperative observation period, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques.
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FDA Issues Warnings About Unapproved "Chelation" Drugs
FRIDAY, Oct. 15 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has notified health care professionals and consumers that no evidence has proved that nonprescription "chelation" products actually rid the body of toxic metals and can treat a variety of serious conditions and diseases.
Pattern of MRI Findings Predicts Cognitive Decline
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have more cerebral microhemorrhages and an altered iron distribution on magnetic resonance imaging compared with controls, and analysis using a support vector machine (SVM) may identify patients with MCI at higher risk of cognitive decline, according to research published online Oct. 5 in Radiology.
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Bioavailable Testosterone Linked to Lower Alzheimer's Risk
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Higher levels of bioavailable testosterone may be protective against Alzheimer's disease in older men, according to research published online Aug. 6 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
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Brain Hemisphere Connectivity Differs for Males With Autism
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have identified differences in the way the hemispheres of the brain communicate with each other in males with autism compared with normally developing males, according to a study published online Oct. 12 in Cerebral Cortex.
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Fibromyalgia Sufferers May Benefit From Yoga Practice
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Yoga might provide an effective counterpart to pharmacotherapy in helping patients cope with and manage fibromyalgia, according to research published in the November issue of Pain.
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Long-Distance Walking Ups Gray Matter Volume
THURSDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- In older adults, more physical activity is associated with greater gray matter volume years later, which in turn is linked to a lower risk of cognitive impairment, according to research published online Oct. 13 in Neurology.
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Neonatal Jaundice Ups Risk of Infantile Autism
MONDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Neonatal jaundice appears to increase the risk of autism and other psychological development disorders, but only for a subset of term infants, according to research published online Oct. 11 in Pediatrics.
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Nightly Blood Pressure Dosing Improves Outcomes
TUESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Administration of at least one blood pressure (BP) medication at night instead of upon waking appears to significantly improve BP control, decrease the prevalence of non-dipping, and reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality, according to a study published in the September issue of Chronobiology International.
Stopping Natalizumab Causes Inflammatory Rebound in MS
TUESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Some multiple sclerosis (MS) patients who discontinue natalizumab therapy may experience a rebound of disease activity, according to research published online Oct. 11 in the Archives of Neurology.
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Experts Propose New Lexicon for Alzheimer's Disease
TUESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- The International Working Group for New Research Criteria for the Diagnosis of AD (Alzheimer's disease) has proposed a new lexicon as a point of reference for earlier diagnosis of AD patients in a position paper published online Oct. 11 in The Lancet Neurology.
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Stem Cell Transplant May Help MS, ALS Patients
TUESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who received mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC) transplantation in a recent phase 1/2 trial experienced stabilization and, in some cases, improvement; results of the trial are published in the October issue of the Archives of Neurology.
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Insulin Resistance Is Potential Marker for Ischemic Stroke
TUESDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Insulin resistance (IR), as measured by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA), appears to be independently associated with an increased risk of first ischemic stroke (IS) among patients without diabetes, potentially providing clinical practitioners with the ability to identify those at high risk of stroke, according to a study published online Oct. 11 in the Archives of Neurology.
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B-Vitamin Therapy May Not Be Useful
MONDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- Routine supplementation with folic acid for five years has no effect on cardiovascular outcomes, cancer incidence, or mortality, according to a meta-analysis published Oct. 11 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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More Than One-Third of Women With Epilepsy Infertile
MONDAY, Oct. 11 (HealthDay News) -- For women with epilepsy, the risk of infertility increases with each additional antiepileptic drug (AED), and more than a third may be unable to conceive, according to research published online Oct. 11 in Neurology.
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Informant-Based Tool Is Good Screen for Alzheimer's
FRIDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) -- A brief informant-based dementia assessment can identify Alzheimer's disease better than more traditional methods and may be a lower-cost alternative for Alzheimer's screening, according to a report published online Sept. 7 in Brain.
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Low Apgar Scores Associated With Cerebral Palsy
FRIDAY, Oct. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Low Apgar scores at birth appear to be strongly associated with the development of cerebral palsy, more so in children of normal birth weight than those of low birth weight, according to research published Oct. 7 in BMJ.
ADHD, Conduct Disorder Tied to Later Substance Use Problems
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be at risk for adulthood substance use disorders (SUDs), particularly if they have conduct disorder (CD) as well, according to research published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
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Deep Brain Stimulation Improves OCD Symptoms
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus accumbens appears to be a safe and effective treatment for refractory obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), according to a study in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
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Hypertonic Saline Not Better for TBI Resuscitation
TUESDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Initial resuscitation with hypertonic saline with or without dextran is not superior to normal saline resuscitation in non-hypovolemic patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to research published in the Oct. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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Children With ADHD at Risk for Depression, Suicide Later
TUESDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Young children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have more than a four-fold increased risk of depression and a nearly four-fold increased risk of suicide attempt by age 18, according to research published in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
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Mortality Predictors for Parkinson's Disease Identified
TUESDAY, Oct. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Age at onset (AAO), chronological age, presence of dementia, motor severity, and psychosis are among the independent factors predictive of mortality in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, according to research published in the Oct. 5 issue of Neurology.
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Immunosuppressive Regimen Treats Pediatric Brain Illness
MONDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Immunosuppressive therapy may improve long-term neurological outcomes in children with childhood primary angiitis of the central nervous system (CNS), according to research published online Oct. 4 in The Lancet Neurology.
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Adjunctive Drug Helpful in Controlling Epileptic Seizures
MONDAY, Oct. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Patients taking rufinamide in addition to their regular antiepileptic medication experience a significant reduction in total partial seizures, according to research published online Sept. 30 in Epilepsia.
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Doctors' Exercise Linked to Confidence Counseling Patients
FRIDAY, Oct. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Physicians' exercise habits and weight are associated with their confidence in their abilities to counsel patients on exercise and diet, as is the level of training they have received in counseling techniques, according to research published in the fall issue of Preventive Cardiology.
Impaired Kidney Function Linked to Future Stroke Risk
FRIDAY, Oct. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is associated with later risk of stroke, and even early stages of chronic kidney disease are associated with a higher risk of subsequent coronary heart disease, according to research published Sept. 30 in BMJ.
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