PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Doctors can now watch spinal cord activity during surgery

New technology offers hope for treating chronic back pain 

Doctors can now watch spinal cord activity during surgery
2024-03-07
(Press-News.org) With technology developed at UC Riverside, scientists can, for the first time, make high resolution images of the human spinal cord during surgery. The advancement could help bring real relief to millions suffering chronic back pain.

The technology, known as fUSI or functional ultrasound imaging, not only enables clinicians to see the spinal cord, but also enables them to map the cord’s response to various treatments in real time. A paper published today in the journal Neuron details how fUSI worked for six people undergoing electrical stimulation for chronic back pain treatment.

“The fUSI scanner is freely mobile across various settings and eliminates the requirement for the extensive infrastructure associated with classical neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),” said Vasileios Christopoulos, assistant professor of bioengineering at UCR who helped develop the technology. “Additionally, it offers ten times the sensitivity for detecting neuroactivation compared to fMRI.”

Until now, it has been difficult to evaluate whether a back pain treatment is working since patients are under anesthesia and asleep. Thus, the patients cannot provide verbal feedback on their pain levels during treatment. “With ultrasound, we can monitor blood flow changes in the spinal cord induced by the electrical stimulation. This can be an indication that the treatment is working,” Christopoulos said.

The spinal cord is an “unfriendly area” for traditional imaging techniques due to significant motion artifacts, such as heart pulsation and breathing. “These movements introduce unwanted noise into the signal, making the spinal cord an unfavorable target for traditional neuroimaging techniques,” Christopoulos said. 

By contrast, fUSI is less sensitive to motion artifacts. It emits sound waves into the area of interest, and red blood cells in that area echo the sound, producing a clear image. “It’s like submarine sonar, which uses sound to navigate and detect objects underwater,” Christopoulos said. “Based on the strength and speed of the echo, they can learn a lot about the objects nearby.”

Christopoulos partnered with the USC Neurorestoration Center at Keck Hospital to test the technology on six patients with chronic low back pain. These patients were already scheduled for the last-ditch pain surgery, as no other treatments, including drugs, had helped to ease their suffering. 
For this surgery, clinicians stimulated the spinal cord with electrodes, in the hopes that the voltage would alleviate the patient’s discomfort and improve their quality of life. 

“If you bump your hand, instinctively, you rub it. Rubbing increases blood flow, stimulates sensory nerves, and sends a signal to your brain that masks the pain,” Christopoulos said. “We believe spinal cord stimulation may work the same way, but we needed a way to view the activation of the spinal cord induced by the stimulation.”  

The Neuron paper details how fUSI can detect blood flow changes at unprecedented levels of less than 1 millimeter per second. For comparison, fMRI is only able to detect changes of 2 centimeters per second. 

“We have big arteries and smaller branches, the capillaries. They are extremely thin, penetrating your brain and spinal cord, and bringing oxygen places so they can survive,” Christopoulos said. “With fUSI, we can measure these tiny but critical changes in blood flow.”

Generally, this type of surgery has a 50% success rate. With improved monitoring of the blood flow changes, Christopoulos hopes this rate will increase dramatically. “We needed to know how fast the blood is flowing, how strong, and how long it takes for blood flow to get back to baseline after spinal stimulation. Now, we will have these answers,” Christopoulos said. 

Moving forward, the researchers are also hoping to show that fUSI can help optimize treatments for patients who have lost bladder control due to spinal cord injury or age. “We may be able to modulate the spinal cord neurons to improve bladder control,” Christopoulos said. 

“With less risk of damage than older methods, fUSI will enable more effective pain treatments that are optimized for individual patients,” Christopoulos said. “It is a very exciting development.”
 

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Doctors can now watch spinal cord activity during surgery Doctors can now watch spinal cord activity during surgery 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM

Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM
2024-03-07
A groundbreaking method for measuring the temperature of nanometer-sized samples within a transmission electron microscope (TEM) has been developed by Professor Oh-Hoon Kwon and his research team in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST. This innovative technology, utilizing nano-thermometers based on cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy, opens up new possibilities for analyzing the thermodynamic properties of fine samples and advancing the development of high-tech materials. The transmission electron microscope allows researchers to observe ...

Veteran PTSD fishing treatment project nets $1.3m in funding

Veteran PTSD fishing treatment project nets $1.3m in funding
2024-03-07
A “game-changing” $1.3m cash injection has been awarded to researchers exploring if doctors can prescribe fishing to treat PTSD.   The vital funding will allow the University of Essex’s Dr Nick Cooper and collaborator Dr Mark Wheeler to expand their influential work which has helped hundreds of military veterans.   Now the Department of Psychology’s Dr Cooper will explore if casting a rod from the bankside can aid police officers, paramedics, firefighters, and the coast guard deal with trauma.     Taking place over the course of three and a half years the National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded ...

Too few caregivers and too many patients – a bad combination for elderly in rural areas

2024-03-07
Ageing baby boomers are swelling the ranks of elderly across the Western world, with Norway no exception. We know Norway's elderly population will increase, and it's likely there will be far fewer healthcare professionals to take care of them. The last 20 years has seen the population of Norwegians over the age of 80 increase by 40,000; the percentage of people aged 67-79 has grown by 37.9 per cent over the last 10 years. Over the next 20 years, there will be 250,000 more Norwegians over the age of 80. The ageing crisis has been predicted for ...

Earth’s earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils

Earth’s earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
2024-03-07
The oldest fossilised forest known on Earth – dating from 390 million years ago – has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of South West England. The fossils, discovered and identified by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Cardiff, are the oldest fossilised trees ever found in Britain, and the oldest known fossil forest on Earth. This fossil forest is roughly four million years older than the previous record holder, which was found in New York State. The fossils were found near Minehead, on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, near what is now a Butlin’s holiday ...

European Lung Cancer Congress 2024

2024-03-07
Lugano, Switzerland, 07 March 2024 – The European Lung Cancer Congress 2024 is the annual appointment that brings together various experts in the field of thoracic oncology, including thoracic surgeons, respiratory physicians and pneumologists, medical and radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists and pathologists, to discuss the latest insights into the recent developments in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.  The event will take place in Prague, Czech Republic, and through a dedicated ...

Pinging pipes could help to identify lead water lines without excavation

Pinging pipes could help to identify lead water lines without excavation
2024-03-07
As any percussionist or fidgety pen-tapper can tell you, different materials make different noises when you hit them. Researchers at Drexel University hope this foundational acoustic phenomenon could be the key to the speedy removal of lead water lines that have been poisoning water supplies throughout the country for decades. A recent study conducted with geotechnical engineering consultant Seaflower Consulting Services, showed that it is possible to discern a buried pipe’s composition by striking ...

A new manganese-fluorine catalyst with exceptional oxidizing power

A new manganese-fluorine catalyst with exceptional oxidizing power
2024-03-07
A research team, affiliated with UNIST has unveiled a cutting-edge catalyst with exceptional oxidizing power, capable of extracting electrons from compounds. Anticipated to revolutionize various fields, including the development of metal catalysts and synthetic chemistry, this catalyst marks a significant breakthrough in catalytic research. Led by Professor Jaeheung Cho in the Department of Chemistry at UNIST, the research team successfully synthesized the pioneering manganese-fluorine catalyst, utilizing the Macrocyclic Pyridinophane System. This catalyst demonstrates the ability to induce oxidation reactions, ...

An aspirin a day? Poll of older adults suggests some who take it may be following outdated advice

2024-03-07
One in four older adults take aspirin at least three times a week, mostly in hopes of preventing heart attacks and strokes, a new poll shows. But many people aged 50 to 80 who said they take aspirin may not need to, the findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging suggest. In all, 57% of people aged 50 to 80 who say they take aspirin regularly also said they don’t have a history of cardiovascular disease. Such people should have a conversation with their health care provider about what’s best for them before stopping or starting aspirin use. National guidelines have changed in recent years for using aspirin for prevention, ...

What makes a pathogen antibiotic-resistant?

What makes a pathogen antibiotic-resistant?
2024-03-07
Antimicrobial resistance is a story of constantly moving parts and players. With every new or tweaked antibiotic or antimicrobial drug, the targeted pathogens begin the evolutionary dance of acquiring resistance, prompting researchers to constantly develop workarounds or entirely new classes of medicine. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of acquired antimicrobial resistance is critical to the fight, a case of knowing one’s enemy. In a new paper published March 2, 2024 in npj Antimicrobials and Resistance, part of the Nature Portfolio, researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys, working with Roche Pharma Research and Early Development, ...

Method rapidly verifies that a robot will avoid collisions

2024-03-07
Before a robot can grab dishes off a shelf to set the table, it must ensure its gripper and arm won’t crash into anything and potentially shatter the fine china. As part of its motion planning process, a robot typically runs “safety check” algorithms that verify its trajectory is collision-free.  However, sometimes these algorithms generate false positives, claiming a trajectory is safe when the robot would actually collide with something. Other methods that can avoid false positives are typically too slow for robots in the real world. Now, MIT researchers have developed a safety check technique which can prove with 100 percent accuracy ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Public confidence in U.S. health agencies slides, fueled by declines among Democrats

“Quantum squeezing” a nanoscale particle for the first time

El Niño spurs extreme daily rain events despite drier monsoons in India

Two studies explore the genomic diversity of deadly mosquito vectors

Zebra finches categorize their vocal calls by meaning

Analysis challenges conventional wisdom about partisan support for US science funding

New model can accurately predict a forest’s future

‘Like talking on the telephone’: Quantum computing engineers get atoms chatting long distance

Genomic evolution of major malaria-transmitting mosquito species uncovered

Overcoming the barriers of hydrogen storage with a low-temperature hydrogen battery

Tuberculosis vulnerability of people with HIV: a viral protein implicated

Partnership with Kenya's Turkana community helps scientists discover genes involved in adaptation to desert living

Decoding the selfish gene, from evolutionary cheaters to disease control

Major review highlights latest evidence on real-time test for blood – clotting in childbirth emergencies

Inspired by bacteria’s defense strategies

Research spotlight: Combination therapy shows promise for overcoming treatment resistance in glioblastoma

University of Houston co-leads $25 million NIH-funded grant to study the delay of nearsightedness in children

NRG Oncology PREDICT-RT study completes patient accrual, tests individualized concurrent therapy and radiation for high-risk prostate cancer

Taking aim at nearsightedness in kids before it’s diagnosed

With no prior training, dogs can infer how similar types of toys work, even when they don’t look alike

Three deadliest risk factors of a common liver disease identified in new study

Dogs can extend word meanings to new objects based on function, not appearance

Palaeontology: South American amber deposit ‘abuzz’ with ancient insects

Oral microbes linked to increased risk of pancreatic cancer

Soccer heading does most damage to brain area critical for cognition

US faces rising death toll from wildfire smoke, study finds

Scenario projections of COVID-19 burden in the US, 2024-2025

Disparities by race and ethnicity in percutaneous coronary intervention

Glioblastoma cells “unstick” from their neighbors to become more deadly

Oral bacterial and fungal microbiome and subsequent risk for pancreatic cancer

[Press-News.org] Doctors can now watch spinal cord activity during surgery
New technology offers hope for treating chronic back pain