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» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - News
11/21/2008 Nanotechnology for Spinal Cord Injury
A cure for spinal injuries that leave
people paralyzed, currently incurable,
is being developed by Researchers
at Northwestern University in
Chicago. They are looking into using
new nanotechnology that could enable
them to completely heal cut and
severed spinal cords allowing the
previously paralyzed to walk again.
Spinal cord injury often leads to
permanent paralysis and loss of sensation
below the site of the injury
due to damaged nerve fibers which
can’t regenerate. These nerve fibers
(axons) have the capacity to grow
but don’t because they are blocked
by scar tissue that have developed
around the injury.
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11/21/2008 Nose cells may heal spine
People paralysed by spinal cord injuries could soon be
"repaired" using cells from their own noses, say Otago University
researchers.
The Health Ministry's ethics committee has just approved an
application by the Spinal Cord Society to open the way for a clinical
trial involving 12 patients, which could start next year.
The society's president, Noela Vallis, said there was no shortage of volunteers ready to take part.
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11/20/2008 Neurons Derived From Embryonic Stem Cells Restore Muscle Function After Injury
Dalhousie Medical School researchers have discovered that embryonic
stem cells may play a critical role in helping people with nerve damage
and motor neuron diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
regain muscular strength.
Motor neurons reside in the spinal cord and control limb movements by
enabling muscles to contract. Diseases like ALS cause them to
degenerate, resulting in muscle weakness, atrophy, and eventual
paralysis.
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11/20/2008 Spinal education has plenty of backbone
An education program promoting spinal injury prevention was on track to reach the major milestone of 80,000 students by the end of the year.
Minister for Disabilities Services, Lindy Nelson-Carr said
Disability Services Queensland had provided funding of $90,000 over
three years for the Spinal Injuries Association program which informs
young people about spinal cord injury and how to prevent it.
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11/19/2008 Promising therapies for spinal cord injuries
A quarter of a million Americans are currently
living with spinal cord injuries, according to the National Institute
of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Although most people know this type of injury can be a
devastating diagnosis, not everyone knows there are many different
types of spinal cord injuries. The location of the injury along the
spinal cord determines what parts of the body are affected. Different
types of spinal cord injuries include:
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» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - Info
11/06/2008 Repairing the Damaged Spinal Cord
Once little more than a futile hope, some restoration of the injured spinal cord is beginning to seem feasible
For Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, the cause was a highly publicized
headfirst fall during warm-ups for the 1998 Goodwill Games. For Richard
Castaldo of Littleton, Colo., it was bullets; for onetime football
player Dennis Byrd, a 1992 collision on the field; and for a child
named Samantha Jennifer Reed, a fall during infancy. Whatever the
cause, the outcome of severe damage to the spinal cord is too often the
same: full or partial paralysis and loss of sensation below the level
of the injury.
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10/04/2008 Spinal cord injury lawyer on paralysis
Spinal cord injuries cripple around eleven thousand people in the
United States each year. Oftentimes, the victim’s injuries result
in permanent paralysis, an injury lawyer from Dallas Texas specializing
in spinal cord, injuries reports:
Individuals between the ages of 16 and 30 are most likely to suffer
from spinal cord injuries and the male population is at a greater risk
than women, 80 percent more. In technical terms, only the lower body of
a paraplegic is paralyzed. Other, more severe injuries result crippling
most of the body, including arms and legs, called quadriplegia or
tetraplegia.
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09/30/2008 Improving schools' support for children with a spinal cord injury
This research study was carried out by the Thomas Coram Research Unit,
the Institute of Education at the University of London between January
and July 2008. The study was funded by the Back-Up Trust, an
organisation working with spinally injured adults and children, as part
of its Schools Project.The main purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of
children and young people with a spinal cord inquiry (SCI) in
mainstream school. This was to inform the Back-Up Trust's Schools
Project, which aims to improve the quality of school provision for
children with a spinal cord injury.
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09/10/2008 The First 72 Hours After SCI: Clinical Practice Guidelines Released
The Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine has released "Early Acute
Management in Adults with Spinal Cord Injury," a guide to managing the
critical first days after spinal cord trauma.
The guideline is published by the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA), which manages and funds the Consortium.
During the first few days after an SCI, when life-saving
interventions dominate the care of the spinal cord injured individual,
efforts at preserving life, limiting the severity of the injury's
effects and improving long-term outcomes are vitally important.
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08/19/2008 Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan May Have Many Roles In Spinal Cord Injury Repair
The proteoglycan chondroitin sulfate (CSPG) plays an important role not
just in the formation of the glial scar but also in the repair of
spinal cord injury, according to an article released on August 18, 2008
in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.
In injuries to the central nervous system such as spinal cord injury,
the glial scar is formed in a similar manner to scars in other parts of
the body. However, while protecting the damaged area in many ways, it
simultaneously releases chemicals that inhibit further regeneration.
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» The Spinal Cord Injury Zone - Questions
09/22/2007 What is the spinal cord?
This may seem to be silly question but, until people get spinal cord
injury or know somebody who is, most pay little attention to their
spinal cords. Most people don’t know the different parts of the
spinal cord, what each part does, and how the spinal cord transmits
sensory and motor information. Many think that the spinal cord conducts
information like a telephone wire and the spinal cord can be fixed by
reconnecting it. Some people mistakenly believe that the spinal cord is
the vertebral column. While almost everybody knows that spinal cord
injury causes paralysis, many are not aware that the spinal cord also
controls the bladder and bowel, sexual function, blood pressure, skin
blood flow, sweating, and temperature regulation.
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07/10/2007 What are the effects of SCI?
The effects of SCI depend on the type of
injury and the level of the injury. SCI can be divided into two types
of injury - complete and incomplete. A complete injury means that there
is no function below the level of the injury; no sensation and no
voluntary movement. Both sides of the body are equally affected. An
incomplete injury means that there is some functioning below the
primary level of the injury. A person with an incomplete injury may be
able to move one limb more than another, may be able to feel parts of
the body that cannot be moved, or may have more functioning on one side
of the body than the other. With the advances in acute treatment of
SCI, incomplete injuries are becoming more common.
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06/05/2007 What is Spinal Cord Injury?
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal
cord that results in a loss of function such as mobility or feeling.
Frequent causes of damage are trauma (car accident, gunshot,
falls, etc.) or disease (polio, spina bifida, Friedreich's Ataxia,
etc.). The spinal cord does not have to be severed in order for a loss
of functioning to occur. In fact, in most people with SCI, the spinal
cord is intact, but the damage to it results in loss of functioning.
SCI is very different from back injuries such as ruptured disks, spinal
stenosis or pinched nerves.
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05/20/2007 What is the spinal cord and the vertebra?
The spinal cord is about 18 inches long and
extends from the base of the brain, down the middle of the back, to
about the waist. The nerves that lie within the spinal cord are upper
motor neurons (UMNs) and their function is to carry the messages back
and forth from the brain to the spinal nerves along the spinal tract.
The spinal nerves that branch out from the spinal cord to the other
parts of the body are called lower motor neurons (LMNs). These spinal
nerves exit and enter at each vertebral level and communicate with
specific areas of the body. The sensory portions of the LMN carry
messages about sensation from the skin and other body parts and organs
to the brain. The motor portions of the LMN send messages from the
brain to the various body parts to initiate actions such as muscle
movement.
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02/27/2007 Why is my spinal cord important?
Your Spinal Cord is important because without a spinal cord your brain and your body couldn't communicate with each other. The spinal cord is the pathway for impulses
from the body to the brain, and from the brain
to the body. These impulses are different signals our brain sends and receives from our bodies.
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What is Spinal Cord Injury?
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Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal
cord that results in a loss of function such as mobility or feeling.
Frequent causes of damage are trauma (car accident, gunshot, falls,
etc.) or disease (polio, spina bifida, Friedreich's Ataxia, etc.). The
spinal cord does not have to be severed in order for a loss of
functioning to occur. In fact, in most people with SCI, the spinal cord
is intact, but the damage to it results in loss of functioning. SCI is
very different from back injuries such as ruptured disks, spinal
stenosis or pinched nerves.
A person can "break their back or
neck" yet not sustain a spinal cord injury if only the bones around the
spinal cord (the vertebrae) are damaged, but the spinal cord is not
affected. In these situations, the individual may not experience
paralysis after the bones are stabilized.
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Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury
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The term "spinal cord injury" refers to any injury of the neural (pertaining to nerves) elements within the spinal canal. 
SCI can occur from either trauma or disease to the vertebral column or the spinal cord itself. Most spinal cord injuries are the result of trauma to the vertebral column. These injuries can affect the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the body systems that control sensory, motor, and autonomic function below the level of injury. Depending on the location and severity of the injury, the body can be affected in a myriad of ways. Typically, the nerves above the injury site continue to function as they always have and the nerves below the site do not.
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