The use of Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) has increased recently with devices utilized to assist people experiencing foot drop. There has been an increase in the public’s awareness of these devices and their use in people living with multiple sclerosis. This article is a good overview.
This site has a plethora of reviews of wheelchairs, cushions, and other assistive technologies. There are other interesting compendiums of info on things like lemon-laws for wheelchairs, going from cane to wheelchair, vans, and travel info.
Hanwell's team studied 125 kids who had evidence of MS symptoms such as numbness. Twenty of the children were diagnosed with MS within the next year, Hanwell said. Blood tests showed 68 per cent of those children had vitamin D insufficiency.
On average, the children with MS had much lower levels of the vitamin than children who did not experience any other MS-like symptoms.
It appears that capturing snapshots of Steve Jobs' Mercedes SL55 AMG parked in a handicapped spot at One Infinite Loop is quickly becoming one of the ultimate "must have" photos on a tour of "The Mothership".
I guess when you're that rich, the handicapped don't matter...
The trial, called Oracle MS, will evaluate the safety and efficacy of two dosage regimens of cladribine tablets versus placebo in the treatment of patients who have experienced a first clinical event suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS). Cladribine tablets are currently also being evaluated in a fully enrolled Phase III pivotal trial - the Clarity study - for treatment of relapsing forms of MS.
Info on current MS/Cladribine trials is here.
Past reports didn't have much information on the new PML cases, but this article has a bit more.
This patent suggests the use of riluzole, an ALS drug, for MS would be useful. In an attempt to find out who the inventor is, I found an MS researcher of the same name who looked at riluzole back in 2005.
It isn't clear if this is something someone is actively pursuing, or just one of those "my institute wants me to file some patents" things.
A group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has invented a wheelchair with all the self-navigating abilities of a GPS device.
Only instead of being inhibited by the need for a satellite signal like a GPS device, MIT said Friday, the location-aware wheelchair uses Wi-Fi and can work indoors.
Just like with a GPS navigator, the wheelchair has programmed favorites. Better yet, it works by voice recognition so you don't have to type in a request.
New data from the extension phase of oral laquinimod in (RRMS) demonstrated a reduction in the mean number of gadolinium-enhancing lesions in both patients who switched from placebo to laquinimod and patients who continued with their initial laquinimod dose.
Laquinimod is a novel once-daily, orally administered immunomodulatory compound that is being developed as a disease-modifying treatment for RRMS. Active Biotech developed laquinimod and licensed it to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. in June 2004. A Phase IIb study in 306 patients was recently published in The Lancet and demonstrated that an oral 0.6 mg dose of laquinimod, administered daily, reduced MRI disease activity by a median of 60 percent versus placebo in RRMS patients.
A man whose wife has suffered for 15 years with a debilitating disease is walking across England to raise £60,000. Andy Monk hopes that his 5,262 mile effort to 722 newspaper offices and radio stations will help scientists to rapidly research a cure for MS – which he has seen take hold of his wife.
Jim Dunlap, a Fort Collins man living with multiple sclerosis, rode in the four-day MS Global ride in Vail last weekend. Money raised at the event will help establish an MS Repository Collection site at the Rocky Mountain MS Center in Denver.
