Sodium Buildup in Brain Linked to Disability in MS Patients

HealthDay – 2 hrs 1 min ago TUESDAY, July 17 (HealthDay News) -- Sodium buildup in the brain seems to be linked to disability in people with multiple sclerosis, researchers have found.

This accumulation of sodium could be an indicator of the degeneration of nerve cells that results from the disease, according to a team of European researchers. Although multiple sclerosis, or MS, symptoms vary from patient to patient, the study authors suggested that their findings may help predict the severity of disease progression and disability.

"A major challenge with multiple sclerosis is providing patients with a prognosis of disease progression. It's very hard to predict the course of the disease," Patrick Cozzone, director emeritus of the Center for Magnetic Resonance in Biology and Medicine, a joint unit of National Center for Scientific Research and Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France, said in a news release from the Radiological Society of North America.

In conducting the study, the researchers used a specific type of imaging technology that provides information on the sodium content of cells in the body, known as 3 Tesla sodium MRI. The test was performed on 26 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, the most common form of the disease, in which flare-ups of symptoms are followed by periods of recovery.

Of the study's participants, 14 had early stage relapsing-remitting MS and 12 had advanced forms of the disease. The researchers also examined 15 healthy participants without MS that they matched for the patients' ages and genders.

"We collaborated for two years with chemists and physicists to develop techniques to perform

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AP IMPACT: Almost half of new vets seek disability

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High-level trauma care may limit disability

Reuters – 1 hr 27 mins ago NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People treated for severe injuries at a specialized trauma center may survive with fewer disabilities than those at other hospitals, a study from Australia suggests.

The findings, researchers say, add to evidence that patients fare better when they're treated under an organized trauma system -- where hospitals, emergency services and state governments have coordinated plans for getting the right patients to the appropriate treatment.

So-called Level I trauma centers provide the most comprehensive care for traumatic injuries and have to meet certain requirements -- like having a specific number of surgeons and other specialists on duty 24 hours a day.

Studies have found that for severely injured people, getting care at a Level I trauma center can cut the risk of dying by 25 percent.

But there'd been some question about whether that drop in death rates might mean more people are surviving with severe disabilities, according to Belinda J. Gabbe, the lead researcher on the study from Monash University in Melbourne.

"Our study shows that care at specialized trauma centers improves the chances of a better functional outcome -- that is, less disability, which really strengthens the evidence for organized trauma systems," Gabbe told Reuters Health in an email.

The study, reported in the Annals of Surgery, found that of nearly 5,000 seriously injured patients treated in the state of Victoria's trauma system, those seen at a Level I center tended to be less severely disabled one year later.

The sample included people who'd been in a car or motorcycle accident or had suffered a fall with head, chest or spinal cord injuries.

Overall, 35 percent of patients had a "good" recovery -- either back to their healthy selves or with some disruption to their daily activities and relationships.

The odds of a better recovery were 22 percent higher for patients treated at Level I centers versus similar patients at other hospitals.

Overall, patients' outlook also got better over time -- with generally lower levels of disability among patients treated in 2008-2009 versus 2006-2007.

Gabbe said it's not clear why that is.

But, she added, it might be due to the "maturing" of the state's trauma system.

In the U.S., about 45 million people live more than an hour away from a Level I or Level II trauma center (by ambulance or helicopter), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Like Victoria, where this study was done, some U.S. states have statewide trauma systems that aim to get the right patients to the right hospital as quickly as possible.

But there are also county-level systems.

"There are studies from San Diego, Los Angeles, Maryland and Milwaukee showing similar results" as the current one, said Dr. Raul Coimbra, who heads the division of trauma, surgical critical care and burns at the University of California, San Diego Health System.

So the new findings are "not novel," according to Coimbra, who was not involved in the study.

But, he said in an email, "the findings provide additional support to the concept that organized, regionalized systems of care

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