Benzodiazepines and related drugs are initiated frequently in persons with Alzheimer’s disease already before the diagnosis, and their use becomes even more common after the diagnosis, shows a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland. Benzodiazepines and related drugs are used as a sleep medication and for anxiolytic purposes. These drugs were initiated more frequently in persons with Alzheimer’s disease than in persons not diagnosed with AD. Compared to persons not diagnosed with AD, it was three times more likely for persons with Alzheimer’s disease to initiate benzodiazepine use after the diagnosis, and benzodiazepines were most commonly initiated six months after the diagnosis.

The findings are based on data from the Finnish Medication Use and Alzheimer’s Disease Study, Medalz. Medalz comprises nationwide, extensive register-based data from the Finnish health care registers, and it includes all persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in Finland between 2005 and 2011. The study, analysed the initiation of benzodiazepines and related drugs in 51,981 persons diagnosed with AD. Their use of drugs was monitored for a period of five years, and the follow-up started already two years before the diagnosis. The findings were compared to persons not diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who were matched based on age and gender.

According to the Finnish Current Care Guidelines, benzodiazepines can be used on a short-term basis to treat behavioural problems associated with Alzheimer’s disease. However, data on the benefits of these drugs in the treatment of behavioural problems is insufficient, but it is known that these drugs increase the risk of falls and cause cognitive impairment.

One of the earlier studies on Medalz study found that in Finland, benzodiazepines are used for extensive periods in persons with Alzheimer’s disease. This, together with the current finding of frequent initiations of these drugs, paints a picture of a possible delay in AD diagnoses and concerning practice of symptom-based treatment before and around diagnosis.

University of Eastern Finland www.uef.fi/en/-/bentsodiatsepiinien-ja-niiden-kaltaisten-laakkeiden-kaytto-yleistyy-alzheimerin-taudin-toteamisen-aikoihin

Watching millions of neurons in the brain interacting with each other is the ultimate dream of neuroscientists! A new imaging method now makes it possible to observe the activation of large neural circuits, currently up to the size of a small-animal brain, in real time and three dimensions. Researchers at the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and the Technical University of Munich have recently reported on their new findings.
Nowadays it is well recognized that most brain functions may not be comprehended through inspection of single neurons. To advance meaningfully, neuroscientists need the ability to monitor the activity of millions of neurons, both individually and collectively. However, such observations were so far not possible due to the limited penetration depth of optical microscopy techniques into a living brain.
A team headed by Prof. Dr. Daniel Razansky, a group leader at the Institute of Biological and Molecular Imaging (IBMI), Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, and Professor of Molecular Imaging Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, has now found a way to address this challenge. The new method is based on the so-called optoacoustics, which allows non-invasive interrogation of living tissues at centimetre scale depths.
‘We discovered that optoacoustics can be made sensitive to the differences in calcium ion concentrations resulting from neural activity and devised a rapid functional optoacoustic neuro-tomography (FONT) system that can simultaneously record signals from a very large number of neurons’, said Dr. Xose Luis Dean-Ben, first author of the study. Experiments performed by the scientists in brains of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) expressing genetically encoded calcium indicator GCaMP5G demonstrated, for the first time, the fundamental ability to directly track neural dynamics using optoacoustics while overcoming the longstanding penetration barrier of optical imaging in opaque brains. The technique was also able to trace neural activity during unrestrained motion of the animals.
‘So far we demonstrated real-time analysis on whole brains of adult animals with roughly 2x3x4 millimetre dimensions (approximately 24 mm3),’ says the study’s leader Razansky. State-of-the-art optical microscopy methods are currently limited to volumes well below a cubic millimetre when it comes to imaging of fast neural activity, according to the researchers. In addition, their FONT method is already capable of visualizing volumes of more than 1000 cubic millimetres with temporal resolution of 10 milliseconds.
Large-scale observation of neural activity is the key to understanding how the brain works, both under normal and diseased conditions. ‘Thanks to our method, one can now capture fast activity of millions of neurons simultaneously. Parallel neural networks with the social media: in the past, we were able to read along when someone (in this case, a nerve cell) placed a message with a neighbour. Now we can also see how this message spreads like wildfire,’ explains Razansky. ‘This new imaging tool is expected not only to significantly promote our knowledge on brain function and its pathophysiology but also accelerate development of novel therapies targeting neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders,’ he concludes.

Technical University of Munich http://tinyurl.com/goxtrm5

Researchers have discovered that ultrasound is a better diagnostic test for early diagnosis of pulmonary embolism and other disorders than current tests.
The study, by Dr. Peiman Nazerian, shows that transthoracic lung ultrasound can detect alternative diagnoses including pneumonia and pleural effusion in lungs more accurately than the commonly used Wells score, as well as detecting early signs of pulmonary embolism.
The Wells score is the most commonly used test to predict the clinical probability of a person developing a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot that travels to their lungs.
‘One of the largest criticisms of the widely used Wells score for estimating likelihood of potentially fatal blood clots in the lung [PE] is the vagary that surrounds the definition of its term, alternative diagnosis more likely than PE,” Jeffrey Kline, vice chair of research in the Department of Emergency Medicine and professor in the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology at Indiana University School of Medicine and study author, said in a press release.
‘Most clinicians who believe an alternative diagnosis is more likely than PE cannot name the diagnosis. Nazerian et al, show that lung ultrasound can quickly and non-invasively allow physicians to literally see the identity of something else wrong’ other than blood clots in the lung. This advantage can help them be more confident in deciding not to order expensive testing that causes large doses of radiation exposure to patients.’

UPI http://tinyurl.com/jzleagl

DGIST announced that Professor Kyung-in Jang’s research team from the Department of Robotics Engineering succeeded in developing bio-signal measuring electrodes that can be mounted on Internet of Things (IoT) devices through joint research with a research team led by professor John Rogers of the University of Illinois, USA.

The bio-signal measuring electrodes developed by the research team can be easily mounted on IoT devices for health diagnosis, thus they can measure bio-signals such as brain waves and electrocardiograms without additional analysis and measurement equipment while not interfering or restricting human activities.

Conventional hydro-gel based electrodes required external analysis and measurement devices to measure bio-signals due to their pulpy gel forms, which made their attachment to and detachment from IoT devices instable. In addition, since these electrodes were wet-bonded to the skin, there have been disadvantages that the characteristics of the electrodes deteriorated or their performance decreased when the electrodes were dried in the air over a long period.

In contrast, the electrodes developed by Professor Kyung-in Jang can be easily interlocked as if they are a part of IoT devices for health diagnosis. Also, since they are composed only of polymer and metal materials, they have the advantage of there being no possibility of drying in the air.

Long-term usability with wireless EMG recording. Data captured using a) a hydrogel electrode and b) soft, folded magnetic electrode. Each red triangle indicates a specific point of muscle contraction of the flexor carpi radialis of the forearm.

The bio-signal measurement electrodes developed by the research team consist of a composite material in which a magnetic material is folded with a soft and adhesive polymer, with a conductive electrode material wrapped around the composite material. The conductive electrode material electrically connects the bottom surface touching the skin and the top surface touching the electrode of the IoT device.

Electrodes with this structure reacting to the magnetic field can be easily attached and detached by using the attraction that occurs between the magnet and the electrode mounted on the IoT devices. Then, through the conductive electrode materials that connect the skin and the electrode part of the IoT device, the electric signals generated on the skin can be directly transmitted to the IoT device for health diagnosis.

The research team succeeded in storing and analyzing brain waves (electroencephalogram, EEG), electrocardiograms (ECG), eye movements (electrooculogram, EOG), and limb movements and muscle contractions (electromyogram, EMG) of the wearer for a long period through an experiment in which IoT devices with the electrodes are attached to various parts of the human body.

The bio-signal measurement electrodes can measure the bioelectric signal generated from the skin without loss or noise by using the IoT platform, thus they are expected to be applicable to the medical and healthcare fields since they cannot only measure the electrical signals of the body, but also analyze various forms of bio-signals such as body temperature change, skin change, and in-body ion concentration change.

DGIST en.dgist.ac.kr/site/dgist_eng/menu/508.do?siteId=dgist_eng&snapshotId=3&pageId=429&cmd=read&contentNo=33460

Some potentially good news for aging Baby Boomers: researchers believe that they have developed a hip replacement that will last longer and create fewer problems for the people who receive them than those currently in use. The secret? An implant that "tricks" the host bone into remaining alive by mimicking the varying porosity of real bones.

Interestingly, the key factor that distinguishes the new implant is that is LESS rather than more solid than those in current use, while still being just as strong.

Damiano Pasini, the man behind the design of the new hip replacement, points at the pyramid-like shapes visible on its surface. The implant is known as a femoral stem and connects the living femur with the artificial hip joint. "What we’ve done throughout the femoral stem is to replicate the gradations of density found in a real femur by using hollowed-out tetrahedra," he explains. "Despite the fact that there are spaces within the tetrahedra, these forms are incredibly strong and rigid so they’re a very efficient way of carrying a load. Just think of the lattice-work in the legs of the Tour Eiffel."

Pasini teaches mechanical engineering at McGill University and first started working on the concept for the implant more than 6 years ago. He smiles ruefully as he pulls earlier versions of the implant down from the shelves in his office to show how far he has come since then. He elaborates:

"So because the implant loosely mimics the cellular structure of the porous part of the surrounding femur, it can "trick" the living bone into keeping on working and staying alive. This means that our implant avoids many of the problems associated with those in current use."

Indeed, the main problem with most implants is that because they are solid, or only porous on the surface, they are much harder and more rigid than natural bone. As a result, the implants absorb much of the stress along with the weight-bearing role that is normally borne by the living femur. Without sufficient stress to stimulate cell formation, the bone material in the living femur then becomes reabsorbed by the body and the bone itself begins to deteriorate and become less dense. This is one of the reasons that many implants become painful and need to be replaced after a time. It also explains why people often have difficulty if they have to have the same hip replaced a second time, because there simply isn’t enough normal, healthy bone to hold the implant in place.

It is a problem that orthopaedic surgeons are seeing more and more frequently.

McGill University www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/towards-better-hip-replacements-263893