How well a woman recovers from a concussion may depend on that time of the month. Researchers found that women injured during the two weeks leading up to their period (the pre-menstrual phase) had a slower recovery and poorer health one month after injury compared to women injured during the two weeks directly after their period or women taking birth control pills.
If confirmed in subsequent research, the findings could alter the treatment and prognosis of women who suffer head injuries from sports, falls, car accidents or combat.
Several recent studies have confirmed what women and their physicians anecdotally have known for years: Women experience greater cognitive decline, poorer reaction times, more headaches, extended periods of depression, longer hospital stays and delayed return-to-work compared to men following head injury. Such results are particularly pronounced in women of childbearing age; girls who have not started their period and post-menopausal women have outcomes similar to men.
Few studies have explored why such differences occur, but senior author Jeffrey J. Bazarian, M.D., M.P.H. says it stands to reason that sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, which are highest in women of childbearing age, may play a role.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, serving a local population of over 750,000, recently installed 224 wireless-enabled Roche Accu-Chek Inform II blood glucose meters in 130 point of care (POC) locations across seven hospital sites.  Linked to the cobas IT 1000 POC data management package, this fully connected glucose testing solution from Roche enhances patient safety by helping to ensure appropriate use of the meters and by providing a full audit trail for every test performed.

The pink plastic box that Cynthia Kim, MD, EdD, opens at the bedside of a young patient at UCSF Benioff Children

Surgical implants are widely used in modern medicine but their effectiveness is often compromised by how our bodies react to them. Now, scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that implant stiffness is a major cause of this so-called foreign body reaction. An obvious difference between electrodes and brain tissue is stiffness. Brain tissue is as soft as cream cheese, it is one of the softest tissues in the body, and electrodes are orders of magnitude stiffer Dr Kristian Franze This is the first time that stiffness of implant materials has been shown to be involved in foreign body reactions.
The findings could lead to major improvements in surgical implants and the quality of life of patients whose lives depend on them. Foreign bodies often trigger a process that begins with inflammation and ends with the foreign body being encapsulated with scar tissue. When this happens after an accident or injury, the process is usually vital to healing, but when the same occurs around, for example, electrodes implanted in the brain to alleviate tremor in Parkinson

By discovering a new mechanism that allows blood to enter the brain immediately after a stroke, researchers at UC Irvine and the Salk Institute have opened the door to new therapies that may limit or prevent stroke-induced brain damage.

A complex and devastating neurological condition, stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death and primary reason for disability in the U.S. The blood-brain barrier is severely damaged in a stroke and lets blood-borne material into the brain, causing the permanent deficits in movement and cognition seen in stroke patients.

Dritan Agalliu, assistant professor of developmental & cell biology at UC Irvine, and Axel Nimmerjahn of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies developed a novel transgenic mouse strain in which they use a fluorescent tag to see the tight, barrier-forming junctions between the cells that make up blood vessels in the central nervous system. This allows them to perceive dynamic changes in the barrier during and after strokes in living animals.

While observing that barrier function is rapidly impaired after a stroke (within six hours), they unexpectedly found that this early barrier failure is not due to the breakdown of tight junctions between blood vessel cells, as had previously been suspected. In fact, junction deterioration did not occur until two days after the event.

Instead, the scientists reported dramatic increases in carrier proteins called serum albumin flowing directly into brain tissue. These proteins travel through the cells composing blood vessels