New imaging technique evaluates nerve damage
Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 7:51 am
A new imaging technique could help doctors and researchers more accurately assess the extent of nerve damage and healing in a live patient.
Researchers at Laval University in Québec and Harvard Medical School in Boston aimed lasers at rats' damaged sciatic nerves to create images of the individual neurons' insulating sheath called myelin. Physical trauma, repetitive stress, bacterial infections, genetic mutations, and neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis can all cause neurons to lose myelin. The loss slows or halts the nerve's transmission of electrical impulses and can result in symptoms such as numbness, pain, or poor muscle control.... Read More - http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm/fuseact ... ageid/1816