Als

Als Stroll, Roll 'n' Run Moves Indoors

... The highlight of the event is always the competitive wheelchair race. Hassel said he challenges the adaptive sports team, the Bad News Chairs, to a race. This year, Pastor Bill will attach an airplane propeller on his wheelchair and hopes to finally win. The front parking lot will be used for the walk and run, while the wheelchair race will be inside Legacy Hall. Son Valley Ranch has seen major renovations and is nearing completion. Glen Dry, 42, owns the 27-acre property and is pastor of Sportsman's Church. He said the new facility will be perfect for the ALS race. "It's a great, large space," he said. "They don't have to worry about the weather that's given them trouble the past few years, so it's worked out great.". Dry has a personal connection to Lou Gehrig's disease. His uncle died from ALS 20 years ago. "I'm just grateful to be able to help something that's also close to our family," he said. "Just to be a part of this is ...

Former Eagle’s View Football Coach Ryan Keith Dies After Lengthy Als Battle

... at his alma mater, Trinity, after that to help out any way that he could. He was a common sight on the sidelines for the Conquerors during a couple of their four consecutive state championships before his health became too fragile. “Ryan was at peace with God, none of us could understand why this path was chosen for him, but he accepted it and I’m positive he realizes he was a blessing to others,” said former Eagle’s View baseball coach Terrance Freeman. “We will hurt a little bit, we’ll cry and we’ll just continue to share that story that Ryan preached to us all.”. Keith said he first noticed symptoms of ALS, which is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in late 2006. He was diagnosed just over a year later. Despite the physical barriers — the relentless disease destroys motor neurons and forces muscles to die — Keith didn’t allow it to consume him. Keith continued to coach the Warriors, spoke to students about the disease publicly and privately, and talked about how his faith was being challenged, but ...

Walker Women Participate In Als Blizzard Tour

... Blizzard Tour staff reports __link__ The Pilot Independent. Walker residents Marie Bakker and Janice Tanner participated in the ALS Blackwoods Blizzard Tour in northeast Minnesota in very different roles. The ALS Blackwoods Blizzard Tour is the largest fundraiser for the ALS Association Minnesota Chapter. Participants in the Blizzard Run raise money by recruiting sponsors for their snowmobile tour. Bakker participated in the three-day, 400-mile snowmobile run from Duluth to Lake Vermillion and back to Duluth. She has participated in the tour for 11 years, and is motivated by her late husband, Hal, who had ALS. Hal was a graduate of Walker-Hackensack High School. Tanner was the main speaker for the celebratory banquet that was held in Duluth. Unable to speak, she used a voice program to share her story, and to describe the support provided to her by the ALS Association. She was diagnosed with Bulbar Palsy ALS in October 2014. Tanner is also a graduate of Walker-Hackensack High School. The Blizzard Tour raised $1,133,900 this year, beating their goal of $1 million. Funds ...

Family Rallies Around Mansfield Father Fighting Als

... in the prime of his life is fighting to stay alive. The one-time successful business owner is relying on the help of others after being diagnosed with a crippling disease. Mike Romero was an avid golfer and owned a construction company. One day, he felt his shoulder trembling and then his legs started to cramp. After numerous tests, Mike found out he has ALS. Just over a year later, he's out of work and his wife had to leave work to take care of him. ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. As it progresses, people may lose the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. “When they come in that room with the piece of paper basically to confirm it and basically say, ‘Go home and enjoy your ...

Zontivity May Increase Als Risk, But Certainty Will Be Difficult To Prove

... Drug Administration (FDA) documents on data from the drug’s clinical studies. While researchers noted that the risk of developing ALS is very small — about one case in every 10,000 treated people — they judged it likely to be tied to the treatment. Greater certainty will be difficult to ascertain, they said, as the extreme rarity of ALS in this population will continue to complicate efforts at reaching the sufficient numbers of patients needed for a clear answer through observational registries and postmarketing surveillance. The study, “Vorapaxar and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Coincidence or Adverse Association?” was published in the American Journal of Therapeutics. Zontivity is an anticoagulant factor that acts to block a molecule called PAR-1, which exists in platelets. The treatment is approved for use after heart attacks and in patients with peripheral artery disease who also use clopidogrel and aspirin. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Dong-A University in South Korea noted that although the publications of the two clinical trials ( NCT 00527943 and NCT 00526474 ) did not mention ...

Husband, Wife Take On Als Together

... incredibly vulnerable person due to a really horrible disease, and you have to trust someone else to come in and take care of him,” she said. For now, Jodi said, she tries to handle any caregiving situation that comes up. The couple has different phrases, almost like code words, that describe what David needs that other people wouldn’t know. “Left-side squeegee,” for instance, means David wants Jodi to wipe on the outside of his nose from the top of the nostril all the way down over the opening of the nostril and then wipe over his lip. Jodi helps David with tasks most of us take for granted: She turns on music. Helps him update a lengthy Facebook status. Brushes his teeth. “We are both young,” Jodi said. “Neither one of us ever imagined we would be doing this at this time in our lives.” It’s difficult on both of them at times, she said. But, Jodi said she has found ways to cope. “I’m lucky because the things that keep me happy are easily accomplished as a caregiver,” she said. “I ...

Als Patient Delivers Baby After Total Iv Anesthesia Without Muscle Relaxant

... Wu Hospital for a cesarean section in her 35 th week of pregnancy. She had been receiving treatment with baclofen (5 mg daily). Her obstetrician had suggested an abortion, which led the patient to abandon all prenatal examinations. Upon arrival, the patient had slurred speech and couldn’t walk. Medical examinations showed motor atrophy and weakness, as well as muscle stiffness and hyperreflexia (overresponsive reflexes) in the legs and arms. She also had limited vital and total lung capacity. During delivery, the woman received TIVA without muscle relaxant — a strategy that helped avoid prolonged ventilation and prevent maternal respiratory complications. She was discharged five days after surgery, with no signs of respiratory complications or other symptoms such as vomiting, nausea or aspiration occurring in the post-surgery period. “The choice of anesthesia type in [pregnant women] with ALS undergoing cesarean section is controversial,” ...

Neurofilament Light Chain As Prognostic Biomarker In Als

... their lumbar puncture. In agreement with previous findings, Nf L concentration in the CSF inversely correlated with speed of disease progression as well as with overall survival, even after adjusting for sex, age, ALS subtype, and disease duration. UMND ALS presented the one exception to the rule. Although it is mild and slow-progressing, patients with this form had CSF Nf L as high as typical ALS. The authors speculated this reflects the predominantly upper corticospinal tract breakdown in UMND ALS. Could Nf L be useful for diagnosis? Based on their numbers, the authors suggest Nf L on its own can distinguish ALS from controls with nearly 90 percent sensitivity and specificity. However, the marker cannot distinguish ALS from FTD or other motor neuron disease with such certainty. “I’m less convinced about the diagnostic part of their study, but I think the ...

Randolph Resident Begins 2,200 Mile Appalachian Hike To Promote Als Research

... TWP. - Steven Riecker has begun a five month, 2,200 mile hike to honor his longtime friend, Roger Pierson, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease in August 2016. On his hike, which he began on Sunday, Feb. 26 and takes him from Springer Mountain in Georgia, up the Appalachians to Mount Katahdin in Maine, Riecker is promoting ALS awareness and fundraising to champion his mission of finding a cure through the ALS Therapy Development Institute. “Suddenly the noise in the back of my head said, ‘hey Rodger is three days younger than me, we both have been super active 56-year-olds, that could happen to me,’” Riecker said. “The question just kept growing louder and louder in my head and before you know it I was in pros and cons mode and wondered what I could do to honor Rodger in this whole process. So i decided to hike in honor of him, but beyond that, why not raise $100,000 to support ALS research and awareness.”. Riecker has since raised his goal of raising $100,000 to $1 million during ...

Als Progression Can Be Measured Using Mri As Biomarker, Study Suggests

... how well patients respond to a certain treatment. For the study, “ Longitudinal evaluation of cerebral and spinal cord damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ,” a team of researchers led by Dr. Marcondes Cavalcante França Jr. of Brazil’s University of Campinas assessed 27 ALS patients and 27 healthy controls clinically and using MRI. They repeated the assessments twice, eight months apart. The team quantified the severity of the disease at both timepoints using a test called ALS Functional Rating Score-Revised (ALSFRS-R), which measures daily living activities and global function of ALS patients. They also analyzed MRI-derived measures such as the thickness of the cerebral cortex (the brain’s outer layer) and the neck spinal cord. The team, whose research was funded by the São Paulo State Research Foundation, that although the cerebral cortex showed no progressive thinning in the cortex of the brain, people with ALS did show a  significant reduction in the volume of their  brainstem after eight months. The researchers also saw an increase in diffusivity, or the ability of water molecules to pass through a region of the brain called the corpus ...

A Potential Biomarker Of Als Progression

... in healthy controls, he expects it will barely change over a period of 18 months, the timeframe of most ALS trials. Benatar and Rogers are working with the Clinical Research in ALS and Related Disorders for Therapeutic Development (CRe ATe) consortium to reproduce this data in a larger cohort. The consortium’s Phenotype-Genotype-Biomarker study  collects urine, blood, and CSF samples from ALS patients every three to six months while clinically assessing cognitive and behavioral symptoms. With 700 patients examined longitudinally, the study will be able to determine whether p 75 ECD can predict future rates of functional decline, Benatar said. Bothwell added that p 75 ECD might be a useful antecedent marker in people with suspected familial ALS. “With ALS, about half of the motor neurons can be lost before a major functional deficit is ...