TL;DR: Pooling 59 trials, all from China, researchers found that adding acupuncture or electroacupuncture to standard rehab after a stroke was linked to better leg movement scores for people with foot drop. But the studies varied widely and many had quality problems, so the size of the benefit is uncertain. Key Findings 59 trials, 4,596 …
TL;DR: In 10 young adults with a neck-level spinal cord injury, standing upright in a frame made blood pressure drop. Wearing compression stockings and a belly binder kept blood pressure from falling, and the five people who felt faint said they felt better. Key Findings Standing lowered blood pressure: Pressure and pulse pressure fell significantly …
TL;DR: At a leading London children’s hospital, 77 children with PRES, a sudden brain-swelling syndrome, were reviewed over 20 years. Nearly 4 in 5 first showed up with seizures, almost all had another serious illness, and about a third of those given seizure medicine still needed it after 6 months. Key Findings Seizures came first: …
TL;DR: In a German study of 34 people recovering from LGI1 encephalitis, a rare autoimmune brain disease, brain scans showed changes well beyond the memory centers usually blamed. People with more of these changes had poorer thinking scores and recovered less. Key Findings Most improved: Median disability score fell from 3 at the worst point …
TL;DR: In a phase III trial of 34 children with a rare inherited energy disorder, the drug dichloroacetate did not improve parent-rated movement problems more than placebo over 4 months. It did lower a harmful blood acid, lactate, and was well tolerated. Key Findings Main goal missed: Movement scores did not differ from placebo (p …
TL;DR: In a small Spanish trial, people with early Parkinson’s who did 12 weeks of strength training, with or without added thinking tasks, got faster on a walking test and stronger on a chair-stand test than people who did not exercise. Adding the thinking tasks gave no clear extra benefit. Key Findings 24 people, 3 …
TL;DR: People with a common type of heart failure scored lower on thinking tests than healthy people of similar age, and an MRI sign of the brain’s fluid-clearing system was lower on the left side of their brains. Lower values of that sign went with lower thinking scores. Key Findings Lower thinking scores: Average MoCA …
TL;DR: Tiny brain samples taken during routine shunt surgery let researchers study Alzheimer’s changes in living people. Half the samples had amyloid plaques, tau clustered around them, and brain tau had a half-life of about five weeks. Key Findings 18 living patients: Rice-grain-sized samples taken during shunt surgery for suspected hydrocephalus. Plaques in 9 of …
TL;DR: Seizures can sometimes steal a person’s ability to speak or understand language for hours or days without causing convulsions, and they can look just like a stroke. A review of 87 reported patients found that 1 in 5 attacks left lasting language problems, often after treatment was delayed. Key Findings 87 patients, 92 attacks: …
TL;DR: In 149 people with memory problems or dementia, blood levels of some brain markers tracked spinal fluid levels well, but others did not match at all. Two common measures of a leaky blood-brain barrier also did not agree with each other. Key Findings Blood vs spinal fluid varied by marker: NfL matched well (r …
