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Could multiple sclerosis by caused by blocked veins? |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 12 January 2010 13:49 |
Five years ago, opera singer Joan Beal had one of those life-changing shocks when her husband Jeff was told he had multiple sclerosis. She and Jeff, an Emmy-award-winning musical director, had been married for more than 20 years and the news came as a huge blow.
The diagnosis was bad enough, but just as distressing was that the treatment - anti-inflammatory drugs and chemotherapy - was aimed only at reducing symptoms. What Joan wanted to know about was the underlying cause.
'Jeff was really sick by the time he agreed to see the doctor,' she says. 'He was numb on his left side and his feet were burning. When they ran tests on him, he also had signs of liver damage and little blood spots all over his shins and ankles.
'When I asked the neurologist why he was so sick, she said Jeff needed to stop drinking. That was flippant and made me angry because Jeff didn't touch alcohol.'
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Tysabri’s PML count continues to climb, Now on 28 |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 11 January 2010 14:16 |
At least one more patient has been diagnosed with a rare, and potentially fatal brain infection after taking natalizumab (Tysabri), the hit drug for multiple sclerosis from Biogen Idec and Elan, according to Biogen CEO James Mullen.
There are now 28 confirmed cases of patients with progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) as of the last count in mid-December.
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Additional $860,000 grant for oral Estriol Multiple Sclerosis clinical trial announced |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 11 January 2010 14:10 |
Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has announced that the ongoing clinical trial of its Trimesta™ (oral estriol) drug candidate being conducted by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, Director, UCLA Multiple Sclerosis Program, UCLA Dept. of Neurology has received an additional $860,440 in grant funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The current phase II/III clinical study is a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial taking place at sixteen sites in the US and will enroll up to 150 female Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients. Investigators will administer Trimesta along with glatiramer acetate (Copaxone®), an FDA approved therapy for MS, to women between the ages of 18-50 who have been recently diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS. This ongoing clinical trial previously received a $5 million grant from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) in partnership with the National MS Society's Southern California chapter, with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Wedge-shaped medullary lesions in multiple sclerosis suggestive of an impairment of venous drainage |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 11 January 2010 14:09 |
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a heterogeneous disease with variable clinical features and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings.
We report four MS cases with unusual wedge-shaped lesions in the paramedian ventral medulla oblongata demonstrated on MRI.
The clinical features and MRI characteristics of the medullary lesions suggest an impairment of venous drainage.
We propose that the formation of these wedge-shaped lesions may be related to the pattern of venous drainage in the ventral medulla and raised venous pressure due to chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency which has recently been described in MS.
Qiu W, Raven S, Wu JS, Carroll WM, Mastaglia FL, Kermode AG.
Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological disorders, University of Western Australia, Australia; Department of Neurology, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre, Perth, Western Australia, Australia; Department of Neurology, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Source: PubmedPMID: 20056253 (11/01/10)
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Scientists fear public confidence in their work risks being undermined by clinics selling bogus stem cell treatments |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 11 January 2010 14:07 |
Insufficient safeguards exist to stop desperate patients being exploited by clinics offering unproven stem cell cures, scientists and patients' groups warn as a Harley Street doctor goes before the General Medical Council accused of misconduct.
The doctor, Robert Trossel, is accused of sending patients from the UK to his Rotterdam clinic, where for up to £12,000 they could be injected with stem cells to help halt degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis. It has been suggested that Trossel's clinic was supplied by another firm, Advanced Cell Therapeutics, which offered to inject 400 booked patients in offshore waters on a ferry.
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