Stroke | MedNews

Leading Causes of Death

December 9, 2010 By MedNews Leave a Comment

While deaths from stroke and several other chronic diseases are down, deaths due to chronic lower respiratory disease increased in 2008.

Stroke is now the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, down from the third place ranking it has held for decades, according to preliminary 2008 death statistics released today by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

There were 133,750 deaths from stroke in 2008. Age-adjusted death rates from stroke declined 3.8 percent between 2007 and 2008. Meantime, there were 141,075 deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease and the death rate increased by 7.8 percent. [Read more…]

In Latest Robotics, New Hope for Stroke Patients

July 12, 2007 By MedNews Leave a Comment

A new robotic device called the Myomo e100, IS designed to help stroke patients regain motion in their arms.

The device, worn as an arm brace, works by sensing weak electrical activity in patients’ arm muscles and providing just enough assistance that they can complete simple exercises, like lifting boxes or flipping on light switches. By practicing such tasks, patients may begin to relearn how to extend and flex the arm, rebuilding and strengthening neurological pathways in the process.

“The device is designed to help get patients over a functional hump” so they can start moving the weakened arm again, said John McBean, a mechanical engineer who developed the technology with Kailas Narendran, an electrical engineer and computer scientist. (The two began the project in 2002, in a graduate robotics class at M.I.T.)

Source: NYT