Latest Torsion dystonia Stories
NEW YORK, Dec. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists from Beth Israel Medical Center and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have announced the discovery of a novel gene for primary torsion dystonia, a debilitating neurological disorder estimated to affect no fewer than 300,000 people in the US and Canada. Published online December 9 in Nature Genetics, the findings describe the GNAL gene, the first primary torsion dystonia gene that directly points to pathways in the...
Fewer than 100 people in the world are known to be affected by a movement disorder called rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP), but its symptoms are life-changing. Seemingly normal young people are suddenly and dramatically unable to control movement of their arms or legs and have trouble speaking or swallowing. A normal life is nearly impossible. RDP is caused by a genetic mutation (ATP1A3) that often runs in families. Now Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center researchers believe that...
GREENSBORO, N.C., April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Merz Pharmaceuticals today announced that initial baseline data from an ongoing Phase 4 Trial Evaluating XEOMIN® (incobotulinumtoxinA) for Cervical Dystonia (CD) and Blepharospasm in the United States (XCiDaBLE) will be presented at the 64th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La. XEOMIN is approved for the treatment of cervical dystonia in adults, to decrease the severity of abnormal head position and...
Researchers have identified a gene that causes adult-onset primary cervical dystonia, an often-painful condition in which patients' necks twist involuntarily. The discovery by a team from the Jacksonville, Fla., campus of Mayo Clinic and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center sheds light on a movement disorder that physicians previously could seldom explain. In 1990, a man with a crooked neck came to see Ryan Uitti, M.D., a neurologist then at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn....
CHICAGO, Dec. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) has announced the recipients of its most prestigious research award, the Stanley Fahn Award. The 2011 awards were given to Pedro Gonzalez-Alegre, M.D. at University of Iowa and Antonio Pisani, M.D. at University of Rome. Dystonia is a neurological movement disorder that causes muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily. The involuntary muscle contractions force the body into repetitive...
GREENSBORO, N.C., Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC, today announced that data from studies evaluating the dosing and adverse event profiles of Xeomin® (incobotulinumtoxinA), a botulinum toxin type A free from accessory proteins, in the treatment of blepharospasm (eyelid spasms) will be presented at the 115th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Ophthalmology (AAO) in Orlando, Fla. These data include an extension of the Phase III, randomized,...
Study Published in Major Journal CHICAGO, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dystonia Medical Research Foundation (DMRF) grant recipient Flavia Nery, Ph.D. and longtime dystonia investigator Xandra Breakefield, Ph.D. of Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, and their collaborators have discovered a significant clue toward understanding why a mutation in the DYT1 gene might lead to dystonia, a debilitating neurological disease. It was in Dr. Breakefield's lab at Harvard where the...
FRANKFURT, Germany, June 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Merz Pharmaceuticals today announced that new data on Xeomin® (incobotulinumtoxinA), a botulinum toxin type A free from accessory (complexing) proteins, will be presented at the Movement Disorder Society's (MDS) 15th International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders in Toronto, Canada. The studies found that repeated injections of XEOMIN were safe and effective in the treatment of blepharospasm and cervical dystonia (CD)...
Scientists tried creating a laboratory model of idiopathic torsion dystonia, a neurological condition marked by uncontrolled movements, particularly twisting and abnormal postures. But the genetic defect that causes dystonia in humans didn't seem to work in the laboratory models that showed no symptoms whatsoever.Now, a team of scientists at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have figured out why and the finding could lead to ways to test novel treatments. Aziz M. Ulug, PhD, and his...
Implanting electrodes into a pea-sized part of the brain can dramatically improve life for people with severe cervical dystonia "“ a rare but extremely debilitating condition that causes painful, twisting neck muscle spasms "“ according to the results of a pilot study led by Jill Ostrem, MD and Philip Starr, MD PhD at the University of California, San Francisco.Today, people with cervical dystonia can be treated with medications or injections of botulinum toxin (e.g., Botox®), which...
