Welcome to your daily round-up of everything happening in the world of neurorehab.
Research
Rates of spinal cord injury double previous estimates
Every two hours, someone is paralysed by spinal cord injury in the UK, new data reveals, with 4,400 people being injured or diagnosed with a spinal cord injury every year.
Leading spinal cord injury charities have called for urgent increase in support for people living with the injury, as data reveals the number of people injured or diagnosed is approximately double that previously estimated.
Climate change likely to aggravate brain conditions
Climate change, and its effects on weather patterns and adverse weather events, is likely to negatively affect the health of people with brain conditions, argue a UCL-led team of researchers.
Following a review of 332 papers published across the world between 1968 and 2023, the team, led by Professor Sanjay Sisodiya (UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology), said they expect the scale of the potential effects of climate change on neurological diseases to be substantial.
Blood pressure control confers both benefits and harms in acute stroke
Early identification of stroke type could be key to harnessing the benefits of very early in-ambulance blood pressure lowering treatment in patients with suspected acute stroke, according to new research. The findings were presented at the 10th European Stroke Organisation Conference in Basel, Switzerland and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Robot and prosthetics’ sense of touch could be as fast as humans
Research at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet could pave the way for a prosthetic hand and robot to be able to feel touch like a human hand. Their study, which has been published in the journal Science, also highlights how the technology could be used to help restore lost functionality to patients after a stroke.
Company updates
BRAIN.Q publishes promising results
BRAIN.Q, has announced promising results from its US multicentre, randomised controlled study – EMAGINE, suggesting that treatment with its AI-powered electromagnetic field therapy may lead to meaningful clinical benefits and a substantial reduction in disability following a stroke. These promising results align with the encouraging findings observed in an earlier randomised controlled pilot trial done with BRAIN.Q’s therapy, announced in 2021.
Ionis and Biogen halt development of ALS drug
Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Biogen have announced the decision to terminate development of BIIB105 (ION541) an investigational antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) based on top-line results from the Phase 1/2 ALSpire study.
