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A Rush Of Blood To The Head - Anger Increases Blood Flow
Mental stress causes carotid artery dilation and increases brain blood flow. A series of ultrasound experiments, described in BioMed Central"s open access journal Cardiovascular Ultrasound, also found that this dilatory reflex was absent in people with high blood pressure.
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Insurance Insiders Give Views On Health Reform
In an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler called the American health system an out-dated, World War II-era obstacle to economic progress. "We"ve been talking about health-care reform in this country for over 100 years, and its never happened," he said. However, he added, "I believe that Congress will be successful." Kreidler, a Democrat, was a member of Congress in the 1990s, when the Clinton administration attempted an overhaul. This time around, he said, "We"re still in July, and they"re making huge progress" (Pulkkinen, 8/2).
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Missouri Judge Approves Summary, Cost Estimate For Abortion Ballot Proposal
Missouri Judge Patricia Joyce last week dismissed conspiracy allegations against three state officials and approved the summary and cost estimate for a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban public funding for abortions and certain types of embryonic stem cell research, the AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.The Missouri Roundtable for Life proposed the ballot measure earlier this year. Supporters of the measure subsequently argued that a summary written by Missouri"s secretary of state was biased. At the same time, opponents of the measure argued that the original petition was improperly drafted and should not have been allowed to proceed.Joyce dismissed the challenges to the summary and cost estimate, which was prepared by the state auditor. She also rejected the Roundtable"s claims that three state officials -- Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Attorney General Chris Koster and State Auditor Susan Montee -- conspired to violate sponsors" constitutional rights. Joyce ruled that the allegations "are without merit and rise to the level of being frivolous."Steve Clark, an attorney representing the Roundtable, said his clients have not yet decided whether they will appeal. If they appeal and the summary is changed, new signatures will be required to support the new language. Supporters hope to place the measure on the 2010 ballot (Blank, AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/20).
Mental Health

Successful Neurosurgery With Transcranial MR-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound

The Magnetic Resonance Center of the University Children"s Hospital Zurich has achieved a world first break through in MR-guided, non-invasive neurosurgery. Ten patients have been successfully treated by means of transcranial high-intensity focused ultrasound. This fully non-invasive procedure opens new horizons for neurosurgery and the treatment of different neurological brain disorders. In the context of a clinical study at the MR Center of the University Children"s Hospital Zurich transcranial MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for brain surgery has been successfully applied for the first time world-wide. A research team under the direction of Professor Daniel Jeanmonod, neurosurgeon at the Department of Functional Neurosurgery of the Neurosurgical Clinic at the University Hospital Zurich and Professor Ernst Martin, director of the Magnetic Resonance Center at the University Children"s Hospital Zurich succeeded in proving the safety and efficacy of this revolutionary surgical method which permits fully non-invasive brain interventions even on an out-patient basis. For quite some years, HIFU has been used for the treatment of uterine fibroids and tumors of the prostate gland. However, its application to the brain through the intact skull for non-invasive neurosurgery was not possible until recently, because of insurmountable technical difficulties. Non-invasive neurosurgery In a Swiss National research project, the team of the University of Zurich successfully implemented and optimized a prototype system for transcranial Magnetic Resonance-guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for neurosurgical interventions. The HIFU system ExAblate® 4000, developed by the cooperation partner InSightec, Tirat Carmel Israel, has been combined with a 3 Tesla high field GE MR-scanner. The two systems together provide a platform for image-guided, non-invasive interventions. Since September 2008 ten patients were treated at the Children"s Hospital Zurich with this new neurosurgical procedure in the context of a clinical study. All interventions were completed successfully and without complications. This novel technology now opens up new horizons allowing to develop non-invasive intervention procedures for a variety of brain diseases including brain tumors. The whole surgical procedure is planned and monitored in real time by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The HIFU beams produced by 1024 transducers are transferred through the intact skull of the patient into the brain and concentrated onto a focus of 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter. Thus, sharply defined targets deep inside the brain are coagulated by heating them up to a focal temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. The temperature increase during the sequential ň€žsonications", each lasting 10 to 20 seconds, is continuously displayed and controlled on precise MR-temperature distribution maps. The whole surgical procedure lasts several hours and is performed without anaesthesia. Patients are awake and fully conscious during the intervention. A project of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Co-Me In the context of the Swiss National Research Program NCCR Co-Me (computer aided and image guided medical interventions), the potential of non-invasive, transcranial MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (tcMRgHIFU) is investigated in clinical studies at the University Children"s Hospital Zurich. Scientists working in the Co-Me program pursue the goal of establishing and developing surgical interventions by means of tcMRgHIFU, in order to broaden the spectrum of completely non-invasive interventions for functional neurosurgery and for the treatment of brain tumors, stroke and various neurological brain disorders by targeted drug delivery. The research project represents a co-operation between the University of Zurich and the ETH Zurich, through (A) the Magnetic Resonance Center of the University Children"s Hospital (Professor Ernst Martin), (B) the Department of Functional Neurosurgery of the Neurosurgical Clinic at the University Hospital Zurich (Professor Daniel Jeanmonod), (C) the Medical Image Analysis and Computer Vision Laboratory of the ETH Zurich (Professor Gabor SzÓ©kely) and (D) the Institute of Neuroinformatics, ETH Zurich (PD Dr. Daniel Kiper), as well as the industrial partner InSightec Ltd. Zurich University


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