Gabriel's Life

A research team headed by a bioengineering professor at the Unviersity of Illinois at Chicago may soon uncover an alternative way to monitor and maintain brain fluid levels. According to the university, associate professor Andreas Linninger will soon test a new fluid sensor on an animal in order to see if the patented volume device can regulate cerebrospinal fluid in the brain better than the traditional shunt. Linninger recently received a $423,000 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders”

Based on three case studies, a psychology professor at the University of Auckland in New Zealand discovered interesting memory function improvement in one of their patients following a shunt surgery. Following 16-, 26- and 33-year-old hydrocephalitic patients, associate professor Jenni Ogden an article in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology detailed the effects a shunt surgery had on the subjects’ relative memory function. Each had demonstrated lower performance for memory, but none had issues with incontinence, dementia or lack”

A new study from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) recently tackled the difference in a particular shunt treatment’s effectiveness between adult patients and child congenital hydrocephalus patients. Indirectly responding to patient worries (like this) of shunt over-siphoning their cerebrospinal fluid, three researchers at PGIMER wanted to see how successful antisiphoning devices could be in pediatric patients. In the study, researchers observed 40 total cogenital hydro patients, dividing them into groups: one with valves featuring antisiphon”

Nearing its fourth birthday, the Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network recently announced an official nation-wide call for applications for new members looking to join their database of clinical trials and patients. Geared specifically toward improving the lives of child hydrocephalus patients, the HCRN began its request for applicants who would be just as dedicated in medical research across national and disciplinary lines. As of today, the network consists of the Primary Children’s Hospital in Utah, SickKids in Toronto, the Children’s Hospital”

Early recognition of shunt failure, more accurate diagnoses in such failures and a lowering of costly medical treatments are all anticipated with the release of a new wireless device by Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. A medical company that attempts to forward the “tremendous potential of microsystems in life and applied sciences,” Integrated Sensing Systems announced the introduction of its wireless pressure technology. The device, according to the Michigan-based company, should better assist at-home monitoring and professional management of conditions like”

Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corporation announced this week the introduction of two new self-regulating valve systems for the management of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow in patients with hydrocephalus. Adding to its already large list of hydrocephalus care devices, the medical technology company was excited to launch the OSV II Lumbar and OSV II Low Flow Lumbar Valve systems. “We’re very pleased that we can offer surgeons and patients an alternative treatment option for hydrocephalus,” said Vice President of Marketing John Barrett.”

Gabriel’s Life’s sister organization, the San Francisco-based Hydrocephalus Association, has announced its first round of research grant winners from a total of five different medical centers. In a press release, the Hydrocephalus Association said each of the two-year, $110,000 grant would accelerate the five institutions toward tackling an overbearing shortfall in the progress of hydrocephalus treatment. “We were very impressed with the quality of applicants and institutions in our first grant cycle,” said David Browdy, Associate Dean of the Feinberg”

A new scanning technology for which many doctors are expressing praise will soon join the upcoming state-of-the-art medical center and C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. (Image courtesy of The University of Michigan) In a press release last week, U-M doctors said they were looking forward to the educational and medicinal potential of a new type of MRI machines–the intraoperative MRI–that allow doctors immediate, accurate imaging of the brain in the very middle of operating on it.”

A team of researchers presented a new study last month suggesting a revision in the medical community’s assumptions of the brain’s regulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) movement, a buildup or lack of which can cause hydrocephalus. Working at New York’s Upstate Medical University, the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and the Division of Pediatric Surgery in Salt Lake City, the researchers published their findings in in the Cerebrospinal Fluid Research journal. The study worked off popular understanding that CSF cannot”

As reported on GabrielsLife.org in September, the Swedish-based medical group LinkMed recently launched a new device to better diagnose normal pressure hydrocephalus. After receiving the commercially-necessary “CE” mark to begin sales of the product in Europe, LinkMed announced last month the second successful purchase and use of their Likvor CELDA technology. This order (placed by the Swedish Uppsala University Hospital) represents a big step for LinkMed’s hope to popularize abilities to “measure the most important parameters concerning the patients’ cerebrospinal”