Johns Hopkins Medicine Health News, May 2007

JHM HEALTH NEWS
An e-news service from Johns Hopkins Medicine
May 2007

NOTE TO EDITORS/REPORTERS:  Welcome to the May 2007 edition of JHM Health News.  As always, Hopkins welcomes comments and suggestions for improving this means of sending you monthly health and medicine story ideas for your direct use or follow up.  Contact John Lazarou at mednews@jhmi.edu to set up interviews, to localize a story with patients in your area, and to arrange for photographs or other services.

For details of stories in this month’s news, click on the accompanying hyperlink.  Some Internet links may not appear on a single line.  If a hyperlink fails, check for continuation of the address on the next line.

Requests to be added to or deleted from the distribution list can also be sent to mednews@jhmi.edu.  To view other news from Johns Hopkins Medicine, go to http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/index.html

IN THIS ISSUE:

• STROKES ARE NOT JUST FOR OLD PEOPLE:  CHILDHOOD STROKES LINKED TO WHIPLASH, OTHER TRAUMATIC INJURY
• MAKING A LIFE-SAVING DRUG EVEN BETTER
• Q&A WITH CARDIOLOGIST SUNIL SINHA, M.D., ON A “SILENT BUT DEADLY” KILLER
• BABY, YOU CAN DRIVE MY CAR
• TESTING, 1… 2…
• MAKING FALL STATS PLUMMET
  

STROKES: NOT JUST FOR OLD PEOPLE:  CHILDHOOD STROKES LINKED TO WHIPLASH, OTHER TRAUMATIC INJURY
Johns Hopkins Children’s Center neurologists are sounding the alarm for parents about a common myth: that children don’t suffer strokes. In fact, nearly 3,200 children have so-called brain attacks each year, and half of them end up with permanent neurological damage, according to pediatric neurologist Lori Jordan, M.D. 

MAKING A LIFE-SAVING DRUG EVEN BETTER
For intensive care patients, insulin therapy can be as fatal as it is vital, says Johns Hopkins clinical physiologist Dariush Elahi.  Elahi illustrates the relationship between blood glucose, insulin and hypoglycemia. Everyone knows that insulin can be a lifesaver for patients with high blood sugar. “But the tiniest mistake,” he says, “can kill a patient in less than an hour.” Too much insulin makes a patient’s blood sugar plummet dangerously, so when glucose hits a safe level, it needs to stay in place. But no matter how closely a patient is watched, once insulin is administered, it’s difficult to control.

Q&A WITH CARDIOLOGIST SUNIL SINHA, M.D., ON A “SILENT BUT DEADLY” KILLER
Cardiologist Sunil Sinha, director of the Johns Hopkins Arrhythmia Device Clinic, talks about contributors, tests and treatments to ward off sudden cardiac death, which claims the lives of more than 930 Americans each day. Sinha, an assistant professor of medicine, has conducted research on atrial fibrillation with clinical interests in the use of pacemakers and defibrillators as therapy for those suffering heart problems.

BABY, YOU CAN DRIVE MY CAR
John Stuelpnagel awoke from hip replacement surgery with a paralyzed right leg. The retired engineer immediately feared he’d have to give up driving. “If I couldn’t drive,” says Stuelpnagel, who drove a red stick-shift convertible, “my life would be practically over.”  Enter Annette Lavezza, the nerves-of-steel occupational therapist who in 2002 launched the Johns Hopkins Driving Program.  The program, part of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is one of only a handful in the state. Lavezza believes everyone deserves a chance to prove his or her driving ability.  That includes those with spinal cord injuries, strokes, visual problems, amputations and cognitive deficits.

TESTING, 1… 2…
Have you ever wondered what Beethoven’s Ninth sounds like to a grasshopper? Now you can find out through a cochlear implant device currently gaining traction in the United States. The Baha system can enhance hearing for people who haven’t been helped with a traditional hearing aid. The system works through the same principles that allow grasshoppers to hear.

MAKING FALL STATS PLUMMET
Sometimes a watchful nurse is all that stands between a patient and a dangerous tumble to the floor. But, until two years ago, nurses here were equipped with only an unreliable fall assessment tool that lacked any evidence to back it up and offered little guidance for reducing risk.  Falls are the sixth leading cause of serious injury and death throughout U.S. hospitals.

For previous issues of JHM Health News go to:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/mediaII/MNU/index.html

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