Seventh World Congress Recap The Seventh World Congress on Brain injury of the International Brain Injury Association was held in conjunction with the Portuguese Society of PRM in Lisbon, Portugal, from April 9-12, 2008. A pre-congress, one day symposium on MTBI, co-sponsored with the World Federation of Neurological Rehabilitation (WFNR), was held on 4/8/08. The event was an overwhelming success with delegates from every corner of the world in attendance. The conference started off strong with the MTBI pre-congress symposium and an array of world class speakers who shared state-of-the-art knowledge on mild TBI including biomechanics and thresholds of human brain injury, pathophysiology and pathoanatomy, clinical assessment and treatment, long term outcome, vocational re-entry, as well as, methodological limitations of MTBI research as related to practice guideline development. [Read more...]Biomarkers: The Future of Diagnosis and Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury The need to objectively measure head injury severity on the battlefield or the football field, at the scene of an auto accident or in the emergency room cannot be overstated. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a major health issue with approximately 1.5 to 2 million incidents occurring annually in just the United States alone. Of these about 50,000 patients die, 500,000 are hospitalized [1-4]. [full story] Vegetative State, Minimally Conscious State and Parkinson-like syndrome as a recovery continuum Owen et al. (Owen 2006) recently described the case of a young woman who sustained a severe head injury in a traffic accident with clinical evolution towards a vegetative state (VS). Although the patient was still unresponsive and unable to communicate five months after the accident, fMRI scans showed that she retained some ability to process language. Moreover, when asked to imagine playing tennis or moving around her home, the patient activated the same cortical areas as healthy people. In the Supporting Online Material (SOM, 2006) the authors report the recovery of minimal interaction with the environment 11.5 months post-injury, when the patient recovered the ability to turn her eyes very slowly to the right, after stimulation on that side, and fixate for more than five seconds. They also report that electroencephalography showed some slow alpha frequencies, as may occur in locked-in syndrome (LIS). [full story] Journal of Interest to IBIA Members Neuroepidemiology is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes manuscripts on all aspects of epidemiology of neurological disorders, including clinical trials and systematic reviews. Its primary focus is on chronic and acute neurological disorders of major importance to clinical medicine, public health, and health care delivery. The journal encourages the use of epidemiology in a multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of neurological disease distribution and determinants of frequency in human populations. The journal also welcomes manuscripts dealing with methodological issues in neuroepidemiological studies. Fast-track evaluation and publication will be secured by online submission, evaluation, and prompt decision, as well as by fast on-line publication of accepted manuscripts, followed by their hard-copy publication. More details are available on the website www.karger.com/ned |
The NeuroTrauma Letter is produced quarterly by the International Brain Injury Association. Please address editorial questions to Editor in Chief
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Articles of Note In order to keep IBIA members apprised of current brain injury literature, NTL editors and editorial board members have prepared a list of recently published articles that may be of interest. [full story] Join the IBIA Listserv In an effort to provide global communication among members, IBIA has created a brain injury Listserv. To sign up for the Listserv, click here. Please note that membership in IBIA is required to join the Listserv. Join IBIA Founded in 1993, IBIA was created in response to the growing demand from professionals and advocates throughout the world for collaboration and more information on all aspects of brain injury, from prevention to long-term care issues. Benefits of membership include an annual subscription to the journal Brain Injury as well as quarterly issues of this publication, the International NeuroTrauma Letter. To receive a membership form, click here (pdf) |
Click here to view upcoming brain injury conferences and events. Editorial Board Michael Barnes, M.D., United Kindom
International Brain Injury Association |