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) >**********************************************************