Your Weekly Dose of #5ThoughtsFriday: A description of what we think is important at BIAMD
  #5ThoughtsFriday
10/20/2017
Date:  

November 3, 2017

Time:  
8:00am–4:30 pm
#5ThoughtsFriday is Powered By :
Here are the 5 things we thought were
worth sharing with you this week:
Megan Kruth still doesn’t know what sent her flying over her bike’s handlebars on Aug. 4, 2013.

The Ironman triathlete and 17-time All-American collegiate swimmer had done training rides on that stretch of Babcock Boulevard near her McCandless townhouse hundreds of times. But that Sunday morning, she probably hit a bump in the pavement. When her helmet struck the pavement, it split open like a too-ripe watermelon. The impact fractured her skull, ribs and collarbone. 

By the time her ambulance pulled into Allegheny General Hospital, she was in a coma. Doctors weren’t sure she’d survive the surgery to remove a bone flap from the skull to expose the brain and relieve building pressure.

But neurosurgeon Khalid Aziz says that the then-41-year-old had several things working in her favor: the quickness with which the paramedics got her to the hospital, her youth and her extremely good health.

Read Megan's wonderfully inspirational story,
NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to The American Journal of Pathology.
Blast related injuries that do not cause long term brain injury
can result in long term retinal injury.
Modern military conflict has dramatically increased the number of military personnel and civilians exposed to blast wave pressure. Although traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a well-recognized consequence of extreme blast waves, it is less appreciated that over 80% of combat veterans with TBI also develop visual problems. A new study in The  American Journal of Pathology  reports that blast exposure that does not cause detectable changes in the brain can result in long-term retinal injury. Researchers identified early indicators of retinal injury and inflammation that may help detect individuals at risk of visual impairment who would then benefit from more timely treatment.

There is a lack of validated biomarkers, as well as limited understanding of the underlying mechanisms of retinal injury due to blast exposure. Currently, diagnosis and measurement of progression of disease rely upon clinical observation, and despite a “normal” ophthalmologic examination, some patients present with chronic visual complaints. Combat veterans show a high percentage of visual field defects, light sensitivity (photophobia), eye movement problems, and decreased contrast sensitivity.

“Our results may explain symptoms of visual dysfunction reported by combat veterans who have experienced TBI,” explained lead investigator Heather West Greenlee, PhD, Director of Graduate Education, Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ames, IA. “These results are not surprising, since the retina is the most accessible part of the central nervous system; as such, it is particularly vulnerable to injuries similar to those that affect the brain.”

Read the rest of this article which may be another possible piece of a very complicated puzzle,
A chemically modified version of the common blood thinner heparin may be the first promising method of preventing the harmful cascade of destruction to brain tissue that commonly follows traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to new research findings. Though there is currently no drug therapy to prevent the repercussions that can occur in the days and weeks after TBI, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania showed that mice treated with a modified version of heparin with very low coagulant activity (known as 2-O, 3-O desulfated heparin, ODSH or CX-01) had less brain swelling and inflammation, and less evidence of brain damage, compared to mice that received saline. Results of the study will be presented in Baltimore this week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI), which accounts for more than 2.5 million emergency room visits every year in the United States, often triggers inflammation and other harmful processes in the brain, causing further damage and cognitive deterioration long after the initial injury. Ordinary heparin has anti-inflammatory properties and has been shown to protect various organs after injury, but its blood-thinning effect makes it problematic for use in injured brains, where a bleed could be fatal. ODSH has only a small fraction of heparin's anticoagulant effect, and thus seemed a good bet as a safer alternative. Prior studies in animal models of heart attack, stroke, and pneumonia have found evidence that ODSH has a heparin-like anti-inflammatory effect, without the risk of hemorrhages.

Another bio-marker possibility,
 2) What We Are Reading That You Might Enjoy...
The Tools  offers a solution to the biggest complaint patients have about therapy: the interminable wait for change to begin. The traditional therapeutic model sets its sights on the past, but Phil Stutz and Barry Michels employ an arsenal of techniques—“the tools”—that allow patients to use their problems as levers that access the power of the unconscious and propel them into action. Suddenly, through this transformative approach, obstacles become opportunities—to find courage, embrace discipline, develop self-expression, deepen creativity. 
 
For years, Stutz and Michels taught these techniques to an exclusive patient base, but with  The Tools, their revolutionary, empowering practice becomes available to every reader interested in realizing the full range of their potential. The authors’ goal is nothing less than for your life to become exceptional—exceptional in its resiliency, in its experience of real happiness, and in its understanding of the human spirit.


For The Book

  (If you decide to buy anything mentioned in #5ThoughtsFriday, don't forget to use  Amazon Smile  and select the Brain Injury Association of Maryland as your donation beneficiary.) 
1) Quote We Are Contemplating...

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. "


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HAVE A TERRIFIC WEEKEND. 
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  Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend.
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