WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy -- a treatment that has been around for several decades -- is making a comeback. Doctors are coupling its use with relatively new diagnostic methods and beginning tests on the therapy as a way to minimize damage from strokes and prevent paralysis after some types of spinal cord injuries.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is just one focus of a meeting next week of the Space and Underwater Research Group of the World Federation of Neurology. The meeting begins Sunday at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, formerly the Sheraton Washington, and continues through Wednesday.
Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) will be the featured speaker at a plenary session on Monday, May 11, at 1 p.m. His topic is "A Vision for Biomedical Research in Space." Glenn, one of the original astronauts, will become the oldest person to venture into space this fall aiming to conduct space-based research on aging.
At a Tuesday morning session, Dr. Mary Anne Frey of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will talk about the results of the Neurolab Space Shuttle Mission. Her talk will be one of the first opportunities to hear about the discoveries since the mission returned on May 3.
And symposiums during the meeting will discuss such topics as epilepsy, embolism detection, future directions in space life science research, among others.
Monday's plenary session of the Congress on Cerebral Ischemia, Vascular Dementia, Epilepsy and CNS Injury: New Aspects of Prevention and Treatment from Space and Underwater Exploration also will include:
- A report on advances in aging research by Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging.
- Dr. Arnauld E. Nicogossian, Associate Administrator of NASA, talking about the NASA Longitudinal Health Study, which is a long-term follow up on the health of astronauts.
- Dr. Reubin Andres, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Aging Study, presenting highlights from that study.
- Three members of the team planning Glenn's flight -- Astronaut Roger Crouch, Dr. David Liskowsky, life sciences program scientist, and Dr. William Paloski, principal investigator of the flight, which NASA terms STS 95 -- discussing research plans for the mission.
The meeting is being coordinated by the Stroke Research Center at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Investigators from around the world -- including Russia, Germany, Austria, South America and the United States -- will present papers or scientific posters describing results of recent research.
"This will be an international forum for scientific communication among a global network of neurologists, neuroscientists, biomedical engineers, and scientists specializing in space, environmental and underwater physiology and pathophysiology," said James F. Toole, M.D., president of the World Federation of Neurology and one of two conference chairs, along with Franz Gerstenbrand of Vienna, Austria. Toole is Teagle Professor of Neurology and director of the Stroke Research Center at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Researchers at the conference will be planning for an acute stroke trial to test the value of using hyperbaric oxygen on stroke patients to slow down the destruction of brain tissue, said Toole. That could extend the time when use of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is useful beyond its current limit of three hours after the stroke begins.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy refers to the practice of putting patients in pressure chambers and having them breathe pure oxygen at two or more times normal atmospheric pressure. It significantly increases the amount of oxygen in the blood, and it is accepted treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, air embolism and certain other conditions.
Other key topics at the conference are:
- Use of telemedicine to treat epilepsy in remote locations -- or in space.
- Use of the low-pressure pants from space to find out which patients are susceptible to strokes caused by their blood pressure medicine.
- Techniques for reducing the brain damage that follows coronary artery
bypass surgery in many patients, and detecting the emboli that cause them.
- Behavior changes following open heart surgery.
Sponsors of the meeting include NASA, the Aerospace Medical Association, the European Space Agency, the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine, the American affiliate of the International Stroke Society, the National Stroke Association and companies such as Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Glaxo Wellcome Inc. and Transworld Information Systems Inc.
For more information or to register for the conference, contact:
Ms. Dee Dee Vernon, Conference Administrator
Stroke Research Center, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Medical Center Blvd.
Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1068 USA
TELEPHONE: (336) 716-6103
TELEFAX: (336) 716-5477
kneedham@wfubmc.edu