AANN Neuroscience News

Apple's top 11 iPhone apps for nurses

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

Physicians are widely known as early adopters of smartphones, and that might be partly because they have been a popular subject for researchers conducting surveys about the impact of mobile health in hospitals. But a study last year by Wolters Kluwer Health's Lippincott Williams Wilkins of 3,900 nurses indicated in early 2012, 71 percent of nurses were already using smartphones professionally.

OHSU researchers' new cloning technique could help patients with Parkinson's, diabetes, multiple sclerosis

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

Oregon researchers have successfully produced human embryonic stem cells using a new technique that could eventually offer hope for conditions such as Parkinson's disease. A team led by Shoukhrat Mitalopov has successfully replaced the nucleus of a human egg cell with that of a skin cell. This caused it to become a personalized stem cell, which in turn can be converted to other types of cells, including muscles, nerve and blood cells. Eventually, Mitalipov hopes the method, a form of cloning, can be used for gene therapy for people with conditions that include Parkinson's, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

Increased risk of dementia in patients with mild traumatic brain injury: A nationwide cohort study

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

It is known that the risk of dementia in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury is higher. However, the relationship between mild traumatic brain injury and dementia has never been established. This study investigated the incidences of dementia among patients with mTBI in Taiwan to evaluate if there is higher risk compared with general population.

Berkeley brain injury detector rivals CT in spotting cerebral edema, intracranial hematomas

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

Suspected brain injuries can be difficult to diagnose, and expensive CT scanners are the best way to look for edemas and hematomas. But CT scanners are large, expensive, ionizing and require specialists to operate. Researchers at UC Berkeley have been working on developing a new brain injury detector that is cheap, easy to use and can provide nearly immediate results.

Alzheimer's research: Biomarkers predict start of mental decline

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

Researchers have figured out new ways to identify who is at risk of developing Alzheimer's, an incurable brain disease that affects 5.4 million Americans. By studying spinal fluid samples and health data from 201 research participants at the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown various biomarkers are reliable predictors of Alzheimer's even years before symptoms become evident .

Researchers: Botox a useful tool for brain study

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

NIH researchers used Botox and other similar toxins to examine how brain cells communicate and discovered a new function for a group of proteins called SNARES.

Male nurses: No longer a rarity

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

VideoBriefOne of the few bright spots in the economy has been the fast-growing healthcare field. As a result, more male workers are entering the booming sector, and an interesting phenomenon has emerged: The nursing profession is becoming more male.

Young stroke survivors at higher risk for more health problems

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

If you think stroke is something only older people need to worry about, Robert Pritchard's story may change your mind.

Brain implants: Restoring memory with a microchip

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

U.S. researchers are hopeful that human trials on a revolutionary memory implant could get underway in the next two years. Scientists hope that the implant could help people restore the memories of people who have had a stroke or suffered localized brain injury.

Brain rewires itself after damage or injury, life scientists discover

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

When the brain's primary "learning center" is damaged, complex new neural circuits arise to compensate for the lost function, say life scientists from UCLA and Australia who have pinpointed the regions of the brain involved in creating those alternate pathways — often far from the damaged site.

4 factors causing today's nursing decline

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

While the enrollment has recently soared as the medical profession prepares for the retirement of the baby boomers, there are fewer openings because nurses in their 50s and 60s are putting off retirement. The shortage of nurses has forced a high patient-to-nursing staffing ratio, which creates burn out and job dissatisfaction. What are the four factors causing today's nursing decline in the U.S.?

Potential treatment for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, dementia discovered

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

A drug currently being used to treat leukemia has been found to help halt the production of toxic proteins in the brain linked to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s disease and various forms of dementia. Researchers from Georgetown University successfully used small doses of the drug nilotinib, used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia, to eliminate abnormal protein build-up in the brains of mice.

Skin cancer linked with lower Alzheimer's risk

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

Though it's smart to take steps to prevent skin cancer, people diagnosed with the non-melanoma types of the disease may have a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a new study finds. Study participants who had been diagnosed with either basal cell or squamous cell skin cancer were nearly 80 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer's, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

8 types of nurses you never knew existed

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

There are 3.2 million registered nurses in the U.S., and that will not be nearly enough in coming years as the Affordable Care Act kicks in and baby boomers begin to need more care. A new book called "The American Nurse" looks at the faces and stories behind those numbers, through portraits and essays of more than 75 men and women in several different caregiving capacities.

Brain-mapping project's vision coming into focus

16 May 2013 08:21:20 CDT

An ambitious, federally funded research initiative aimed at developing the technologies needed to map the human brain is still in its planning stages, but it has the potential to completely transform the field of neuroscience, government health officials say.