This year’s House version of the FY2011 Defense Authorization Act (HR 5136) will go to conference with two amendments addressing the problem of faulty brain injury screening in which the military has been under fire because of in recent reports. Congresswoman Mary Fallin of Oklahoma offered an amendment to the bill that was adopted stating that [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 4, 2010
A recent retrospective study of cognitive assessment in traumatic brain injury patients found no clear pattern of cognitive ability associated with neurological impairment. Cognitive assessment—in the form of tests such as the WAIS (in various versions) or the HRB (Halstead-Reitan Neurological Test Battery)—is often administered early to traumatic brain injury patients in order to determine cognitive [...]
Continue reading...Monday, April 5, 2010
Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) describes damage to the axon of a neuron. Axons are covered in white, fatty matter that helps to quickly relay messages back and forth, and the major region of the brain that is dense with this white matter is called the corpus callosum. As such, the corpus callosum is the most [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, March 31, 2010
People who suffer from a spinal cord injury are at greater risk of developing bladder cancer than those without injury. Patients with indwelling catheters have also been shown to be at greater risk of developing bladder cancer. There has been a question of whether the increased risk of cancer was related to the spinal cord [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 22, 2010
Health care reform at the federal level is officially on hold. Republican Scott Brown gained the Massachusetts seat vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy, thereby breaking the 60-vote majority in the Senate. Democrats met privately in the days following the Massachusetts special election but were unable to cultivate a strategy for moving forward at [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 22, 2010
After the devastating Massachusetts special election, House and Senate leaders are expected to resume negotiations this week to attempt to finish the health care overhaul. Although a clear path is still unknown, BIAA will continue to monitor the situation closely. A big thank you to all of our grassroots advocates who answered the call last [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, March 21, 2010
On March 21, 2010 the House of Representatives passed a historic health care overhaul package that marks one of the biggest victories in the history of the Brain Injury Association and for people affected by brain injury across the country. BIAA advocated tirelessly for more than a year to ensure that people with brain injury [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 15, 2010
Hormonal problems caused by damage to the pituitary gland are considered common in traumatic brain injury. However, reports of rates of pituitary gland impairment after traumatic brain injury have varied from 15-90%. Researchers from the Netherlands recently suggested that this variation could be due to differences in diagnostic criteria, in the type of tests given, [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 8, 2010
Older age has been known to be a negative factor in recovery after traumatic brain injury. While there are several factors that may be involved in this association, such as pre-existing conditions or multiple medications that negatively impact the injury, a cellular explanation has also been proposed.
Continue reading...Monday, March 8, 2010
The association of a positive blood alcohol level (BAL) and the outcome of traumatic brain injury has recently become a controversial one. Different clinical studies have shown both positive and negative outcomes of brain injury when a positive BAL is present. Although alcohol intoxication increases the risk of brain injury, disability, and mortality, there is [...]
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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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