Jun 24, 2018
First appeared on ScienceDaily.com
Paralysis of an arm and/or leg is one of the most common effects of a stroke. But thanks to research carried out by scientists at the Defitech Foundation Chair in Brain-Machine Interface, in association with other members of EPFL’s Center for Neuroprothetics, the Clinique Romande de Réadaptation in Sion, and the Geneva University Hospitals, stroke victims may soon be able to recover greater use of their paralyzed limbs. The scientists’ pioneering approach brings together two known types of therapies — a brain-computer interface (BCI) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) — and has been published in Nature Communications.
“The key is to stimulate the nerves of the paralyzed arm precisely when the stroke-affected part of the brain activates to move the limb, even if the patient can’t actually carry out the movement. That helps reestablish the link between the two nerve pathways where the signal comes in and goes out,” says José del R. Millán, who holds the Defitech Chair at EPFL.
Twenty-seven patients aged 36 to 76 took part in the clinical trial. All had a similar lesion that resulted in moderate to severe arm paralysis following a stroke occurring at least ten months earlier. Half of the patients were treated with the scientists’ dual-therapy approach and reported clinically significant improvements. The other half were treated only with FES and served as a control group.
For the first group, the scientists used a BCI system to link the patients’ brains to computers using electrodes. That let the scientists pinpoint exactly where the electrical activity occurred in the brain tissue when the patients tried to reach out their hands. Every time that the electrical activity was identified, the system immediately stimulated the arm muscle controlling the corresponding wrist and finger movements. The patients in the second group also had their arm muscles stimulated, but at random times. This control group enabled the scientists to determine how much of the additional motor-function improvement could be attributed to the BCI system.
Reactivated tissue
The scientists noted a significant improvement in arm mobility among patients in the first group after just ten one-hour sessions. When the full round of treatment was completed, some of the first-group patients’ scores on the Fugl-Meyer Assessment — a test used to evaluate motor recovery among patients with post-stroke hemiplegia — were over twice as high as those of the second group.
“Patients who received the BCI treatment showed more activity in the neural tissue surrounding the affected area. Due to their plasticity, they could help make up for the functioning of the damaged tissue,” says Millán.
Electroencephalographies (EEGs) of the patients clearly showed an increase in the number of connections among the motor cortex regions of their damaged brain hemisphere, which corresponded with the increased ease in carrying out the associated movements. What’s more, the enhanced motor function didn’t seem to diminish with time. Evaluated again 6-12 months later, the patients hadn’t lost any of their recovered mobility.
Story Source: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. “A dual-therapy approach to boost motor recovery after a stroke.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 20 June 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180620094808.htm>.
Jun 22, 2018
On 21st June 2018 SAFE held its second Regional Conference of 2018. This conference was attended by more than 20 delegates from UK, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France.
Once again, the SSOFT project was presented to our delegates, in a form of an interactive workshop.
This e-learning tool is available online at www.ssoft.info and can be accessed anywhere, by anyone with an Internet connection. It is designed to be compatible with multiple devices including computers, smart phones and tablets. The information is structured into six e-learning modules that cover information ranging from: introducing the key principles of an
SSO through the use of data to create effective messages, to approaches to developing positive and impactful public and health advocacy campaigns. The modules contain a mixture of videos, presentations and animations, ensuring that it is accessible for all, in particular stroke survivors.
Module 1, 2, and 3 are now available with modules 4, 5 and 6 being released between August and November this year.
SAFE President, Jon Barrick, presented SAFE’s success stories and projects from the past year, with a special focus on projects that are being developed in this year. The most important among them, the Stroke Action Plan for Europe was launched at ESOC 2018 in Gothenburg and in the EU Parliament in May 2018. SAFE is now working on a popular version of this comprehensive document, hoping to present it towards the end of the year. The popular version will be written in a lay-friendly manner and available for our members for further translation and dissemination, as per the Burden of Stroke Report in 2017.
One of the sessions was delivered by our sponsor, Boehringer Ingelheim, bringing updates and providing information on new developments with the Angels Initiative project.
There will be a new approach in this project and the target audience will be quite different to what we are used to in the stroke world. For more information and a sneak peek into the new branding, please visit www.angels-initiative.com and join their community.
The next SAFE Regional Conference and the final one for this year will be held in Prague on 28th June.
SAFE’s regional conferences continue to be sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim, and we are grateful for their support.
Jun 20, 2018
First appeared on oruen.com
Every 30 minutes a stroke patient who could have been saved, dies or is permanently disabled, because they were treated in the wrong hospital.
Angels Initiative is building a global community of stroke centers and stroke-ready hospitals, working every day to improve the quality of treatment for every stroke patient.
The goal is to get 1500 stroke-ready hospitals around the world by May 2019.
Please click on the photo bellow to access the series of the Angels ESOC 2018 symposium videos:
For more information about Angels Initiative, please visit www.angels-initiative.com
Jun 19, 2018
First appeared on ScienceDaily.com
For every three individuals who have had a stent implanted to keep clogged arteries open and prevent a heart attack, at least one will experience restenosis — the renewed narrowing of the artery due to plaque buildup or scarring — which can lead to additional complications.
Now, a team led by UBC electrical and computer engineering professor Kenichi Takahata has developed a type of “smart stent” that monitors even subtle changes in the flow of blood through the artery, detecting the narrowing in its earliest stages and making early diagnosis and treatment possible.
“We modified a stent to function as a miniature antenna and added a special micro-sensor that we developed to continuously track blood flow. The data can then be sent wirelessly to an external reader, providing constantly updated information on the artery’s condition,” said Takahata.
The device uses medical-grade stainless steel and looks similar to most commercial stents. Researchers say it’s the first angioplasty-ready smart stent — it can be implanted using current medical procedures without modifications.
Research collaborator Dr. York Hsiang, a UBC professor of surgery and a vascular surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital, noted that monitoring for restenosis is critical in managing heart disease.
“X-rays such as CT or diagnostic angiograms, which are the standard tools for diagnosis, can be impractical or inconvenient for the patient,” said Hsiang. “Putting a smart stent in place of a standard one can enable physicians to monitor their patient’s health more easily and offer treatment, if needed, in a timely manner.”
The device prototype was successfully tested in the lab and in a swine model. Takahata, who holds patents for the technology, says his team is planning to establish industry partnerships to further refine the device, put it through clinical trials and eventually commercialize it.
Story Source: University of British Columbia. “‘Smart stent’ detects narrowing of arteries.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 June 2018. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180619123000.htm>.
Jun 14, 2018
The new updated HEILAHEILL home page with purple color
The excellent performance of HEILAHEILL’s activities in Icelandic society 2017-2018, has had a good result in raising public awareness about the consequences of suffering a stroke with a special version and distribution of an impressive smartphone app.
By doing so, the association gained attention from the public, not only about the stroke itself, but also about the risk factors that lead to stroke trauma. Last year, the association has been in close cooperation with the media; the Organisation of the Disabled in Iceland, (which is the umbrella organization of most patient associations in the country); professionals; doctors; neurologists pioneering new procedures, thrombectomy and nurses at the National Hospital and also in health care centres throughout Iceland; the university community; health authorities outside the countryside and the government; employees of the welfare department; the Health Minister of Iceland, to raise awareness of stroke trauma.
The Minister of Health, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, delivers a financial contribution to Þórir (Thorir) Steingrímsson, chairman of HEILAHEILL.
HEILAHEILL is a non-profit organisation for people interested in cerebrovascular disease and has been member of SAFE since 2011.
The population of Iceland is only 345 thousand and about 0.10% are members of the association. Its activities cover the whole country and are based on raising awareness of stroke trauma and drawing the attention of the general public through the regular media; social media; our website (recently updated in purple); YouTube; publication of our magazine and leaflets, etc., and the use social media such as direct broadcasts of regular meetings on Facebook!
Meetings are attended by are well-known doctors, nurses, famous actors, singers, writers volunteers to increase public participation.
It is estimated that approximately 2 individuals suffer a stroke per day in Iceland. The association, in cooperation with the authorities and National Hospital and other health care institutions across the country, promotes healthcare responses in the “door-to-needle” campaign, now estimated to be approximately 40 minutes, improving from an estimated approximately 80 minutes last year! Our contribution is this special HEILAHEILL emergency line-app in smartphones, speeding up emergency services when someone has a stroke symptom, enabling the accurate location of the person through GPS location technology and getting information on who is asking for help, their age and gender and of course why the emergency call is needed. Today 1% of the population have already downloaded this app on their phone and the emergency staff states that 0.0051% of them have already used it!
Jon Barrick, president of SAFE, together with Kolbrún Stefánsdóttir, board member of SAFE and board member of HEILAHEILL and Þórir Steingrímsson, chairman of HEILAHEILL, at SAFE conference in Madrid in June 2018.
Iceland has the potential to be tight-knit, very tight-knit, because everyone knows more about each other than in other European countries.
The people are like a big, helpful family, who stand together, without discrimination on the grounds of national differences or nationality, gender or social status, ethnicity, colour or religion.
Stroke survivors find it easy to fight for their affairs within the current legislation and dare to meet the politicians who make significant decisions about the stroke. This small community is unique, surrounded by clean and untouched nature.
Because of our present position in this favorable environment, we know that we have every chance of doing better for stroke patients, ensuring prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. And we will do so!
You can try this Icelandic app by downloading it from your appsutilities, Applestore, Googleplay, Playstore, and more and look for HEILAHEILL and use the ID number of the company 6112942209 – but the emergency staff will not attend you unless you are in Iceland!
