The Great NetXperiment!

‘By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff WriterMarch 28, 2007

Physicist Paul C. Lauterbur, who received a 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for giving physicians the ability to look inside the human body without using harmful radiation, died Tuesday at his home in Urbana, Ill.He was 77 and had been suffering from kidney disease.

Lauterbur played a key role in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, which produces highly detailed images of soft tissues and organs without using X-rays.

Although the first MRI instruments did not become available until the early 1980s, their use has exploded to the point that more than 60 million MRI examinations are performed every year.

The technique is particularly valuable for imaging the brain and spinal cord, monitoring the progress of diseases such as multiple sclerosis and assessing damage to knees and other joints.

Read more here - Los Angeles Times

I have been a bit quiet for a while due to a couple of reasons. Summer has ended here in Australia but the temperatures are still quite high, couple that with some disgusting weeks-in-a-row of 100% humidity and you find me languishing with MS symptoms galore.

On top of that my daughter discoevered Skype and has been chatting to her boyfriend non-stop. My internet access allows 10gig of up/down traffic before the service gets throttled to 64k a sec. Just over dial-up speeds. Divide that between three people fighting for bandwidth and you have…no internet basically! Usually this will happen in the last days of the month, but the new Skype chat traffic meant that it has been since the 20th!

Good news though, is the article I wrote for the departmental newsletter at work was published. It didn’t generate any questions as yet so i will do some face-to-face promotion, and see if I can get it pushed to higher/wider audiences outside of the country.

Also I have been hitting the gym every morning from 6am and am slowly getting back the fitness I was developing before my head exploded late last year. I am looking forward to feeling strong again and the loss of the aerobic fitness was a big blow (terrible pun!).

THE television reporter Elizabeth Quigley yesterday described the moment she was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis as “unreal”.

Speaking publicly for the first time about her condition, the BBC
journalist and wife of former SNP leader John Swinney said she was told
she had MS seven years ago.

“I was 28, living in Glasgow and preparing to buy my first flat. I had
just started a fantastic new job as BBC Scotland’s political
correspondent. And my life was about to take a turning I could never
have expected,” she said. Unconcerned about the tingling sensation in
the left side of her face, Quigley eventually visited her GP, convinced
that she was “a complete time-wasting fraud”.

ALICE WYLLIE

Read More -Scotsman.com News - Scotland

MS Stuff

A new photographic exhibit, called “The Image of MS” has been unveiled at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome to dispel myths about multiple sclerosis (MS), challenge public perceptions about the disease, and encourage those with symptoms to seek treatment as early as possible. According to a recent worldwide survey to gauge public awareness about the disease, nearly 60 percent of respondents incorrectly believe that most people with MS are either paralyzed or bound to a wheelchair, and 61 percent said one of their biggest fears about MS is that it will prevent them from living active lives. (1, 2)

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HAWTHORNE, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar 19, 2007 - Acorda Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ACOR) today announced that Andrew Goodman, M.D., Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Rochester, will present data from Acorda’s MS-F203 Phase 3 clinical trial of Fampridine-SR in multiple sclerosis at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology (AAN) meeting.

 The platform presentation will take place on Wednesday May 2, 2007 at 4:15 pm Eastern Time (ET). This abstract was also selected to be part of the Scientific Highlights program, which spotlights the top five percent of the more than 1600 abstracts accepted for presentation at this meeting. The AAN meeting will take place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA.

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 Berlex, Microsoft, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Embark on
  Landmark Collaboration to Help People with MS Maintain Their Health and
                               Stay Connected

    NEW YORK, March 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — In today’s fast-paced,
digital environment, more people are embracing the technology that has
revolutionized the way we conduct business, interact with our family and
friends, and manage our households. For some people with multiple sclerosis
(MS), technological advances may offer benefits, but they can also pose
challenges. Due to some MS symptoms, everyday tasks such as seeing a
blinking cursor on a computer screen, manipulating a mouse, or remembering
when to take medication may prove difficult. Industry leaders think they
may be able to change this.

    Recognizing the advantages that technology can bring to people with MS,
leaders from three specialty areas — pharmaceutical, technology, and
patient advocacy — have come together to improve the way technology may
help people with MS maintain their health and independence, have support
for their life choices, and stay connected with their families, friends,
and communities.

Read More - Accessible Technology Can Offer Customizable Solutions to People with MS

For Michelle Schilling and 400,000 other Americans who acknowledge
having multiple sclerosis, symptoms are most often strange and vague —
different for each person.

“I woke up from a nap one day and the
entire side of my body was numb,” Schilling said of her first attack of
multiple sclerosis (MS) seven years ago.

Every week 200 people
in the United States, one every 20 minutes, are diagnosed with MS,
according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

…

There are more than 15,000 people in Ohio diagnosed with MS. It is the
leading disabler of the Ohio economy, costing an individual more than
$57,000 each year and $1 million over the course of the disease,
according to The National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Ohio Buckeye
Chapter.

….

Read More: Living with MS

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Mar 15 (Korea Newswire)– Innovation was the word of the day as Intel announced the winners of the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS).

Seventh Place: Megan Blewett, 17, of Madison, N.J., received a $20,000
scholarship for her analysis of a protein that may be implicated in
multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Korea NewsWire

A Russian piano pianist, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, will be playing a recital on a very special piano in Marlborough this evening.Olga Bobrovnikova, who trained as a pianist at the acclaimed Moscow Conservatoire, is touring the country to raise funds for multiple sclerosis (MS) in New Zealand.

The international pianist said she was really looking forward to the one-off piano recital at Marlborough’s Montana Brancott Winery because she would be able to perform on a Steinway used by one of her idols.

“This recital is a special event for two reasons - first the wine - and secondly there is a special Steinway in the visitors’ centre.”This instrument is one that Rachmaninoff, my piano icon, played. I am preparing a special treat with the early romantic works 1891-1906 of the young Sergei

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Research under way at the University of Cincinnati could one day
help short-circuit the most disabling forms of multiple sclerosis.

Istvan
Pirko, a neurologist and researcher in UC’s Waddell Center for Multiple
Sclerosis, is leading a team of researchers studying the role certain
cells in the body’s immune system play in the development of multiple
sclerosis.

In the disease, the immune system seems to attack
myelin, a fatty substance that insulates the nerves. As the insulation
is worn away, various symptoms begin, including loss of vision, balance
and coordination and muscle weakness and fatigue.

The exact cause of multiple sclerosis is unknown, but some experts
believe exposure to environmental toxins or a viral infection might
trigger the attack.

Pirko’s research focuses on the infection theory. He and his team inject mice with viruses to re-create the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, including tell-tale lesions on the brain.

Read More Here - Cincinnati team focuses on infection as MS cause