A research team led by investigators at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found that a small device worn on a patient’s brow can be useful in monitoring stroke patients in the hospital. The device measures blood oxygen, similar to a pulse oximeter, which is clipped onto a finger.
Their study, published in Neurosurgical Focus, suggests this tool, known as frontal near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), could offer hospital physicians a safe and cost-effective way to monitor patients who are being treated for a stroke, in real time.
“About one-third of stroke patients in the …

Though pacemakers require only small amounts of energy (about 1 millionth of a Watt), their batteries have to be replaced periodically, which means multiple surgeries for patients. Researchers have searched for ways to prolong battery life – trying to generate energy to power a pacemaker using blood sugar, or the motion of the hands and legs – but these methods either interfere with metabolism or require a more drastic surgery, such as passing a wire from the limbs to the chest area. Aerospace engineers from the University of Michigan in …

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Berkley, and published in PLoS Biology reveals neuroscientists’ new breakthrough research on how they will be able to understand the thoughts of patients without actually hearing them speak. This will be incredibly helpful when treating patients who are unable to speak after strokes, paralysis, or even possibly during comas.
Brian N. Pasley, a post-doctoral researcher and first author of the study says:
“This research is based on sounds a person actually hears, but to use it for reconstructing imagined conversations, these princicples …

Bypassing the stem cell stage, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California converted mouse skin cells directly into neural precursor cells, the cells that go on to form the three main types of cell in the brain and nervous system. They write about their findings in the 30 January early online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings of this and an earlier study question the idea that pluripotency (the ability to become virtually any other cell in the body, a key characteristic …

A study on rats published in Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology showed that sound waves could be used to reduce sperm counts to levels that would cause infertility in humans.
Researchers described ultrasound as a “promising candidate” in contraception.
However, far more tests are required before it could be used.
The concept was first proposed in the 1970s, but is now being pursued by researchers at the University of North Carolina who won a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
They found that two, 15-minute doses “significantly reduced” the number of sperm-producing cells …