|
 BOSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- More than 3 million people in the United States have epilepsy. One in every 100 has experienced an unprovoked seizure. Surgery can eliminate the symptoms, but doctors can rarely get a clear enough image to figure out where to operate. That's all changing with a new helmet-like device that gives doctors a picture-perfect view inside the brain.
For Victoriahope McAuliffe, the seizures started when she was 4, and haven't stopped.
Text Continues Below
"I feel like I am not living like a normal teenager," McCauliffe told Ivanhoe. "I have like scars from where I've fallen down and crawled on the ground, and I've been in school where I've been all bloody."
Growing up with epilepsy isn't easy. Medication doesn't always work, and it makes her groggy. Surgery is an option, if doctors know where to operate.
 "Many patients with epilepsy could be helped if we could find the part of the brain that's actually the source of the epilepsy, but in many patients, those parts of the brain are so small we just can't see them with our normal MRI," Bruce Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Radiology and Health Sciences & Technology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Rosen is one of the first to use the "Brain Bucket," a new scanner that sees inside the brain like never before.
"It's kind of like the difference between the picture you would take on your cell phone and the picture you would take with a good 10-megapixel camera," Dr. Rosen explained.
The helmet is filled with 96 metal coils and sensors that pick up signals from different areas of the brain and translate them into an image. A traditional MRI uses between two and 12 coils.
"With the Brain Bucket technology, we kind of put the whole process on steroids," Dr. Rosen said.
One scan taken by MRI was read by a radiologist as completely normal, but the Brain Bucket's clearer picture showed a small lesion linked to seizures. In a study, the device caught 50 percent more defects than traditional scans.
 McCauliffe hopes the helmet sees what others have missed so she can have surgery to stop the seizures.
Doctors believe the device could also be a powerful weapon in the fight against Alzheimer's and brain tumors. With its resolution, the device can identify and follow changes in the brain, allowing doctors to prescribe more accurate treatments.
More Information
Click here for additional research on Brain Bucket of Epilepsy
Click here for Ivanhoe's full-length interview with xxxxxdr
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Melissa Medalie at mmedalie@ivanhoe.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Bruce Rosen, MD, PhD
bruce@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
|
.gif)
