Infection-Inflammation [29:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (327)

Infection-Inflammation: Calor, Dolor, Rubor, Tumor for the 21st century Neurologist.

Hear these reports:

• Rapid Test For Viral Meningitis Is First To Win Agency Approval: Xpert EV test detects viral meningitis in CSF in < 3 hours (instead of the usual 3-7 day wait).
• Serogroup 22 Emerging as Common Meningitis Cause (in > 60% cases): Is it time that the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine include this serotype?
• Infections Land Parkinson’s In Ed: Worsening motor changes in your patient? Consider infections.
• Premorbid Brain Changes Found in Familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: Magnetic resonance diffusion weighted imaging can measure brain changes from CJD a decade or more before the onset of symptoms.

Weblinks:

• Prions + Retroviruses as Cause of Songiform Encephalopathies
• Blood pheresis procedure for cancer: remove TNF blocker cytokines and let the ‘inflammation against cancer’ begin.
• Inflammation, auto-immunity and types I and II diabetes.
• International researchers discuss evidence associating chronic inflammation with long list of diseases.
• Staph. Aureus and Borellia burgdorferi go intracellular, and possibly a number of other bacteria too.

Next week’s show: Our second installment of Movement Disorder Quarter – steadying guidance on motor disturbances. We’ll focus on latest neurology news related to Parkinson’s disease, including gene therapies showing promise.

 

 #73: Infection - Inflammation: Calor, Dolor, Rubor, Tumor for the 21st century Neurologist. Installment #5 [28:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (734)

Infection - Inflammation: Calor, Dolor, Rubor, Tumor for the 21st century Neurologist. Installment #5

Publication Date: Jun 8th, 2007.

Focus: Stealth infections, and the possible effect that ONE of the numerous hidden invaders has on Parkinson’s disease.

The bug is Helicobacter pylori. It’s back in the limelight. And Parkinson’s pathogenesis may be eased from its eradication.

And does herpes simplex virus play a role in Alzheimer’s?

Listen and learn about other concealed infectious entities possibly cohabitating, within our bodies, and causing varying degrees of stress on our physiological systems - our “psychoneuroimmunology.”

And last but not least (on the flip side): “Filth and Felicity” - Is our obsession with having a sterile environment for daily living contributing to us humans being a bunch of “psycho-enodo-neuro-immunological” wimps?
(…More…)

 

 #68: Defeating Dementia, Installment #7 [53:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (645)

Promising news and approaches for progressive brain disorders (previously called ’senility Solutions”). Installment #6

Publication Date: May 4th, 2007.

Show Summary:
Researcher and pathologist Dr. Alan MacDonald explores the link between Borrelia burgdorferi infection - neuroborreliosis - and Alzheimer’s disease. Previous STAT coverage of his work: #23, #26 and #65.

On this episode, ‘Reflections on Recent Alzheimer’s News,” Dr. Macdonald mirrors his thoughts about recent news from Clinical Neurology News based on: 1) the neuroborreliosis hypothesis, 2) what he learned during the recent 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease in Madrid, Spain (Jul, 2006).

Dr. Macdonald will reflect on news about: the genetics and markers of Alzheimer’s disease; new research efforts and related political issues; diagnosis and treatment; the diabetes-Alzheimer’s comorbidity; and the importance of inflammation and oxidation in Alzheimer’s pathogenesis - all from the perspective of the neuroborreliosis paradigm.

Dr. Macdonald’s papers and presentations can be downloaded from www.molecularalzheimer.org. He can be contacted from the website too.

 

 #67: Infection - Inflammation, Installment #4 [28:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (554)

Infection - Inflammation: Calor, Dolor, Rubor, Tumor for the 21st century Neurologist. Installment #4.

Publication Date: Apr 20th, 2007.

You’ll hear news on transmissible spongiform encephalopathy:
1. Prion Disease May Be Viral: Virus-like particles produced prion protein.
2. Early Therapy for Prion Disease: Therapies aimed at reducing prion protein might be a potential therapeutic option.
3. FDA Proposes Bovine Ban: To keep medical products free of whatever ‘transmissible agent” really causes the disease.

And you’ll hear other infection-related news:
1. Herpes Zoster’s Cost Burden High, Increases With Age
2. Severe Septic Shock Could Trigger Later Brain Atrophy in Survivors.
3. Ventilator Pneumonia Haunts Neurocritical Care.

And last but not least, Urinetown? Urine for a real treat!

 

 #57: Infection - Inflammation, Installment #4 [31:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (541)

Infection - Inflammation: Calor, Dolor, Rubor, Tumor for the 21st century Neurologist. Installment: #4.

Publication Date: Feb 16, 2007.

Show Notes: Prions - the creepy culprits causing Mad Cow Disease in England, and Kuru in Papua New Guinea cannibals. Thanks to contaminated blood products from silent carrier-donors, they are back in the news. Given the possible 30-year incubation time frame for prions, there may be reason for concern.

And neuroimaging shows fibromyalgia is not just ‘all in the head’ - it’s affecting the peripheral nervous system too.

Links:

• www.blog.wired.com - Is transmissible spongiform encephalopathy really caused by a virus, not the prion?
• www.endfatigue.com - A doctor claims to provide relief to over 90% of his fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue patients.

 

 #56: Destination Demyelination, Installment #2 [23:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (612)

Publication Date: Feb 9, 2007.

Show Notes: A laboratory model for Multiple Sclerosis is being used in mice to demonstrate potential therapeutic efficacy of nicotinamide (niacin, vitamin B-3) for multiple sclerosis.

And in our other report, a vaccination against a cytokine may be efficacious against MS. The chemical messenger secreted by a newly discovered type of T-helper cell has been exposed as the ‘root of all inflammatory and autoimmune evils.’ Vaccination against this cytokine presents a potential therapeutic strategy against MS, and a host of other autoimmune - ‘auto-inflammatory’ - disorders.