ScienceCache
Vol. 185
Oct. 26, 2004
GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS TO BETTER TREAT DEMENTIA
Doctors are turning to wireless technology in an effort to better treat
people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
Thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Association and
Intel Corp., psychiatrist Adrian Leibovici will explore whether gadgets
such as motion sensors and wearable motion detectors can give doctors
and nurses a clear picture of patients’ lives in their own homes.
The team is focusing on movements of patients with dementia and will
compare the findings from the technology to results of traditional
methods where doctors and nurses discuss a patient’s activities
with the patient and his or her family. Such information is crucial
for patients to receive appropriate care. “Behavior changes hour
to hour, or even minute to minute, in patients with dementia,” says
Leibovici, associate professor of psychiatry. “It happens all
the time. One minute the patient is quiet and calm, and the next minute
she might be agitated, anxious or loud. Our traditional ways of evaluating
and documenting such behavior may not be adequate. A family might report
that a patient has been calm for two weeks, when really the patient
was calm only that morning.” The first stage of the study involves
testing technology in the smart medical home located in the Center
for Future Health. Once calibrated, the wireless technology will be
installed inside the homes of patients who volunteer to take part in
the study.
Full story
ROCHESTER TO TAKE PART IN NATIONAL ALZHEIMER’S
IMAGING INITIATIVE
The University is participating in one of the largest Alzheimer’s
studies to date, a $60 million effort led by the National Institute on
Aging to test whether new imaging techniques and other technology can
be better used to assess and treat patients with memory loss and dementia.
Psychiatrist Pierre Tariot helped design the five-year Alzheimer’s
Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, which will begin in April 2005 and will
include 800 participants at 50 sites around the nation and Canada, including
at least 20 people in the Rochester area. Doctors and nurses will use
repeated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measure the brain
size of participants as they age; they’ll also take repeated positron
emission tomography (PET) scans to track the activity in the brains of
some of the participants, and they’ll track biomarkers from a patient’s
blood, urine, and even cerebrospinal fluid in some cases. The study will
include healthy older adults, patients with Alzheimer’s disease,
and patients with mild cognitive impairment – a condition that
describes the in-between ground between normal memory problems and full-blown
dementia. The community’s participation should come as no surprise:
The University was recently recognized by the NIA as the lead site for
the nationwide Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, enrolling
more patients than any other place in the country. More than 1,200 patients
from the Rochester area have taken part in Alzheimer’s studies
since 1998.
Full story
DON’T BALK: ARMYWORMS HELP CREATE FLU VACCINE
FASTER
Scientists are launching a research study to check the effectiveness
of a new type of flu vaccine that is made differently than the conventional
vaccine, which is grown in eggs. The experimental vaccine instead relies
on a cell line drawn from insects known as fall armyworms, which are
better known for their role as pests attacking crops such as corn, cotton,
barley and alfalfa. John Treanor, director of the Vaccine and Treatment
Evaluation Unit, initiated the study of FluBlOk, made by Protein Sciences
Corp., in 400 to 500 healthy adults ages 18 to 49. Since the 1940s the
chicken has been at the center of flu vaccination efforts, because fertilized
chicken eggs are used to grow the flu viruses used in vaccines. Each
egg contains less than a teaspoonful of material that will ultimately
become part of a vaccine. Because of the complexity and sheer size of
the process – tens of millions of eggs must be produced, and vaccine
material must be “harvested” from each – it’s
typically a six-month process to produce enough vaccine for the public,
when everything goes well. Using a cell line instead of eggs to produce
the vaccine would likely slice one or two months off the production process,
says Treanor. That could reduce costs and give scientists and physicians
crucial time to monitor the spread of flu around the globe before concocting
a vaccine.
Full story
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