Stroke

Vermont has become the first US state to ban paraquat, amid concerns over studies linking the herbicide to Parkinson’s disease. Phil Scott, the governor, signed the legislation on Tuesday. The new law takes effect on November 1, although it allows state regulators to issue special permits for paraquat use on fruit-producing tree orchards, berries and [...]

A rapid stroke test that can show whether a common drug will work is being piloted at a new Nottingham clinic. The cheek swab test is being offered at Queen’s Medical Centre, where a new clinic is assessing and treating patients after suspected minor stroke. It can show within hours whether a patient carries a [...]

A Cheshire tractor run has raised more than £2,300 for the Stroke Association after a three-day route across England and Wales. Thirty-two vintage tractors set off from Davenham at 6am on Friday, May 1, heading to Llangollen and back over more than 200 miles. The event was organised by Alex Kettlewell, Rhys Jones and Phillip [...]

A nasal spray designed to protect brain cells after stroke could offer a new prehospital emergency option, researchers say. Researchers say the approach could help slow brain cell death and buy time for clot-removing or clot-busting treatment. The spray has been developed by scientists at the University of Hong Kong, who describe it [...]

Researchers say the cause of lacunar stroke may explain why some standard medicines are less effective. Lacunar strokes affect about 35,000 people in the UK each year and account for around a quarter of all strokes. They had previously been linked to arteries in the brain becoming blocked by fatty deposits. New findings suggest they [...]

The human microplastic burden has been linked to stroke, dementia and other serious health risks, experts say. Brain tissue from deceased donors in a 2016 to 2024 cohort was found to have microplastic concentrations seven to 30 times higher than matched liver or kidney samples, with the cumulative tissue burden rising by around 50 per [...]

Sensory brain regions may drive speech relearning more than motor regions, with new research linking them to memory for newly learned speech movements. The findings challenge the assumption that speech motor learning and the memory of newly learned speech movements are primarily driven by motor regions of the brain. The study, published in [...]

Extreme weather is being linked to more strokes and heart attacks, with heat waves and cold snaps both pushing up risk, new research suggests. The findings analysed data from more than eight million residents of eastern Poland between 2011 and 2020. Researchers recorded more than 573,000 major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events during the decade. The [...]

Thousands of stroke patients are missing out on thrombectomy, a life-altering treatment that can save lives or reduce long-term disability, a charity has warned. The Stroke Association has highlighted “stark inequalities” in whether patients receive a thrombectomy, a procedure that removes a blood clot from a blocked blood vessel in the brain. Getting this treatment [...]

As reported by NR Times last week, Bioxtreme has secured a total of US$15m to support the development of its rehab robotics. Here, we speak to Eyal Samuel Shachar, CEO of BioXtreme, about the company's counterintuitive approach to neurorehabilitation: using error augmentation in robotics to help stroke and other neurological injury patients recover faster. Watch [...]