Rayna,

I have not had to use a walking aid until now - I bought a fold up walking
stick
this morning so I will see how I go.

Thanks,
Carrie.


>From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: "St. John's University Cerebral Palsy List"
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: Recipients of C-PALSY digests <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: C-PALSY Digest - 3 Jan 2006 to 4 Jan 2006 (#2006-5)
>Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 00:23:38 -0500
>
>There are 4 messages totalling 184 lines in this issue.
>
>Topics of the day:
>
>   1. Mobility (2)
>   2. FW: UCSD-Laser Technique Sheds Light on Strokes
>   3. AUTISM AND HOPE
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date:    Wed, 4 Jan 2006 18:05:16 +0800
>From:    Rayna <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Mobility
>
>Carrie Bancroft wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I find I am having spasms in my legs if I stop quickly whilst walking
> > - does any one use a walking stick/crutches ?
> >
> > Carrie.
> >
>
>Hi Carrie,
>
>Yes, I have that problem as well.  Have been using a quad cane to walk
>with over the last 4 or 5 years, and that helps to make me feel safer -
>I know that I can prevent falls as a result.  Do you use any walking
>aids at the moment yourself?
>
>Rayna
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Wed, 4 Jan 2006 14:23:32 -0500
>From:    Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: FW: UCSD-Laser Technique Sheds Light on Strokes
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [log in to unmask]
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>Behalf Of UCSD University Communications
>Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 11:18
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: UCSD-Laser Technique Sheds Light on Strokes
>
>The following news release and any accompanying images can be accessed on
>the
>web at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/smicrostrokes.asp
>January 3, 2006
>
>Media Contact: Sherry Seethaler, (858) 534-4656, [log in to unmask]
>Comment:  David Kleinfeld, (858) 822-0342, [log in to unmask]
>
>UCSD Laser Technique Sheds Light on Strokes A technique developed at the
>University of California, San Diego that precisely creates and images blood
>clots in the brain in real time could make it possible to understand the
>small
>strokes implicated in many forms of dementia, including Alzheimer's
>disease.
>The study, published this week in the early on-line edition of the journal
>Public Library of Science Biology, represents a collaboration between the
>research groups of David Kleinfeld, professor of physics at UCSD, and
>Patrick
>Lyden, professor of neurosciences at UCSD's School of Medicine.  The paper
>will
>appear in the print edition of the journal in February.
>Using a laser to trigger the formation of individual blood clots in tiny
>arteries of the brains of anesthetized rats, the researchers were able to
>monitor the resulting changes in blood flow.  They say that their study
>provides
>a way to understand small strokes common in elderly humans.  These strokes
>often
>cause no immediate symptoms, but they are thought to contribute to dementia
>and
>may ultimately cause larger strokes.
>"Our technique makes it possible, for the first time, to precisely target
>individual blood vessels to create a blood clot while causing very little
>collateral damage," explained Kleinfeld.  "We can then follow, in real
>time, the
>changes in blood flow in surrounding vessels that occur as a result of
>the formation of a clot in one small artery of the brain."
>"We know from MRI scans that small strokes are very common in the brains of
>elderly patients," added Lyden.  "Such small strokes have been linked with
>dementia, and may also put patients at risk for a major stroke.  The power
>of
>the technique we describe in the paper is that it allows us to study the
>response of the brain to stroke in a controlled way.  By understanding what
>happens, we hope to learn how to prevent the major damage associated with
>stroke."
>In the study, the team members used tightly focused laser light to excite a
>dye
>that they had injected into the bloodstream.  The excited dye reacted with
>oxygen to form a free radical, which "nicked" the cells lining the blood
>vessel
>at the target location, and triggered the natural blood clotting cascade.
>Using two-photon fluorescence microscopy-a powerful imaging tool that uses
>brief
>(less than one-trillionth of a second) laser pulses to peer below the
>surface of
>the brain, the researchers snapped frames every second before and after the
>formation of the blood clot.  They also measured blood flow in the arteries
>upstream and downstream of the clot.  Remarkably, immediately following the
>formation of the clot, blood flow downstream of the clot reversed itself.
>"People tend to think of blood flow like a river," said Chris Schaffer, the
>lead
>author on the paper, who was an assistant project scientist working with
>Kleinfeld in physics at the time of the discovery.  "If you dam one
>tributary,
>then everything downstream from there would be cut off.  However, we've
>found
>that the more complicated topology of the blood vessels leads to the
>counterintuitive result that blood flow in some downstream vessels reverses
>direction to compensate for the blockage."
>In the paper, the researchers discuss how this result can explain the
>observation, by clinicians, that certain regions of the brain seem to be
>protected from stroke.  These protected regions of the brain have networks
>of
>vessels with extensive redundant connections.  In the case of a blockage,
>these
>redundant connections permit blood to flow through alternate loops and be
>pushed
>in the opposite direction below the clot, as observed in this study.  The
>reversal prevents downstream regions of the brain from being starved of
>oxygen.
>In addition to what the researchers could observe in real time, the
>technique
>facilitates follow-up because the fluorescent molecules used to visualize
>blood
>flow bind to injured places in the artery.
>"Rather than having to tediously search for the targeted vessels using
>brain
>sections, the fluorescence provides a kind of footprint that can be
>followed,"
>said Beth Friedman, an associate project scientist working with Lyden in
>neurosciences and a contributing author on the paper.  "Then you can look
>to see
>if there have been biochemical changes in the region of the clot, or
>changes in
>what genes are expressed, which is especially important to determine if an
>intervention protects against damage from stroke."
>Kleinfeld and Lyden attributed the advance to collaboration across
>traditional
>disciplinary boundaries.
>"Pat and I are coming from different worlds, but we had the same question
>at the
>back of our minds," said Kleinfeld.
>"Joining forces allowed us to crack a puzzle that either one of us couldn't
>crack alone," added Lyden Other contributors to the study were Nozomi
>Nishimura,
>Lee Schroeder and Philbert Tsai at UCSD and Ford Ebner at Vanderbilt
>University,
>Nashville.
>The research was supported by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the
>Veteran's Affairs Medical Research Department, the National Institutes of
>Health, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the National Science Foundation.
>UCSD news on the web at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Wed, 4 Jan 2006 14:32:03 -0500
>From:    Meir Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: AUTISM AND HOPE
>
>The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link
>attachments:
>
>Shortcut to: http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20051216_autism.pdf
>
>You need the adobe reader to view
>
>THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
>AUTISM AND HOPE  transcript
>
>A Conference presented by Brookings and
>The Help Group of Los Angeles;
>Co-Sponsored by Autism Speaks and Cure Autism Now
>with the further support of the Karmazin
>Foundation and Michael Fox
>Friday, December 16, 2005
>2:00 - 6:00 p.m.
>The Brookings Institution
>Falk Auditorium
>1775 Massachusetts Avenue
>Washington, D.C.
>[TRANSCRIPT PRODUCED FROM A TAPE RECORDING]
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date:    Wed, 4 Jan 2006 15:19:22 -0500
>From:    Susan Moskowitz <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Mobility
>
>Carrie,
>     I used quad canes as a young child and have been using forearm
>crutches
>for nearly 40 years.
>Susan
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Carrie Bancroft" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2006 2:18 AM
>Subject: Mobility
>
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I find I am having spasms in my legs if I stop quickly whilst walking
> > - does any one use a walking stick/crutches ?
> >
> > Carrie.
> >
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of C-PALSY Digest - 3 Jan 2006 to 4 Jan 2006 (#2006-5)
>**********************************************************