Photo Memories to Help Alzheimer Patients

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects an estimated 5.4 million people. It is one of the most prevalent diseases in the United States and one of the leading causes of debilitation and death. One of the major side effects of Alzheimer’s is that those affected lose their ability to remember things.  Many lose their ability to remember what they just a few weeks, days, minutes or even what they are doing right now. Researchers are working on developing a technology that will help Alzheimer’s patients coup with their decrepit memory.
                The basis for this new technology is an innovative “life logging” photographic device developed by Microsoft. The device is called SenseCam and is marketed commercially as Vicon Revue. The basic idea is that this device creates a chronological picture journal of the day of an Alzheimer patient’s day that way, they can go back and review the pictures to help them remember important events and recall what happened. The innovative part of the device is that rather than recording the entire day or snapshots of the day at random, the SenseCam uses an array of sensors and some intelligent programing to only capture the events that are important. For example, it has a photoreceptor that detects changes in light that might result from walking from one room to another or leaving a building, which can be helpful for an Alzheimer’s patient to remember where they are. It also has a multi axis accelerometer to detect when the user is up and about so it can take pictures at a greater frequency. It has a inferred temperature sensor that detects the body heat when someone walks by so it can snap a picture helping patients remember who they talked and interacted with. The device is a small 6.5 by 7.0 by 1.7 cm box with a 3 megapixel camera. The pictures are stored on an 8GB solid state hard drive enabling to store days worth of pictures at once. The device also includes a number of software applications to help users edit and sort through pictures and organize them in a meaningful way that will help them remember things. Clinical trials have demonstrated that this device drastically improves the memory and recall ability of people who start to use it compared to their ability prior to using it. While this is not a cure to Alzheimer’s or memory loss, it is a solution that helps those suffering from memory loss cope. This device can be used to help people remain more independent for longer and attain higher degree of independence and day to day functionality.

Link to original article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=photographic-memory-wearable

Hand Transplant

There have been a growing number of success stories of people who have lost their hands getting transplants. This is a very difficult process due to the various tissue types that are present in the cross section of the arm. This article is about one of these cases. The hand transplant offers a bright alternative to prostheses in that it would be totally in the person's control. The surgery takes many hours and people, but would be more than worth it to someone in need.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/usmc-usl082611.php

Diagnosing Alzheimer's Disease Before Symptoms Show in Women

Currently, there are over 27 million people worldwide suffering from Alzheimer's disease (AD) and according to the American Health Assistance Foundation, approximately 1 in 45 people may be living with AD in the United States by 2048. Unfortunately, science has yet to introduce a cure into the market, leaving those affected to digress in their lives until the symptoms eventually claims them. With recent advances in providing treatments against AD, the market has provided five drugs that slow its degenerative process. These drugs mainly target and deactivate acetylcholineesterase inhibitors in the body which increases the amount and duration of acetylcholine in the body. Acetylcholine serves several functions in both the Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System in the body. In general, it functions as a neuromodulator responsible for the enhancement of perception, sustaining attention, muscle contraction, etc. To achieve the best results from those drugs, one would have to begin consumption at a relatively early stage. Unfortunately, by the time one is diagnosed with AD due to memory loss, or difficulty performing regular tasks, etc. the disease has progressed too far for the medication to be of optimum potential for the patient. Luckily, this article found a correlation that will help with the diagnosis of AD much before the onset of symptoms in females.

According to an extensive study done by Theo Luider at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the females who exhibited symptoms of AD and later were diagnosed with AD, exhibited high levels of pregnancy zone protein. Compared to that of a normal female, women who were diagnosed with AD, on average, had 60% higher pregnancy zone protein content. After more analysis, scientists have discovered that brain plaques produce the pregnancy zone protein, and more specifically, female brain plaques create abnormally larger amounts than male ones. The reason how sex plays a role in the development of pregnancy zone proteins is still under investigation but the aforementioned research serves to benefit the community by allowing for a much earlier diagnoses in women than in men.

LINK: http://www.economist.com/node/21531417