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IMAGE: Dr. Teresa Kimberley (left) works with a vagus nerve stimulation patient (center) and a grad assistant at the Brain Recovery Lab on the MGH Institute of Health Professions campus in. view more
Credit: John Shaw
Results of a study co-authored by MGH Institute of Health Professions researcher Teresa Kimberley, PhD, PT, have the potential to be one of the most impressive advances in decades to help improve the lives of patients who have had a stroke with resulting arm weakness.
In an article published April 22 in
The Lancet, Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired with Rehabilitation for Upper Limb Motor Function After Ischaemic Stroke (VNS-REHAB): A Randomised, Blinded, Pivotal, Device Trial, the study reports that patients who incorporated vagus nerve stimulation during physical or occupational therapy showed 2 to 3 times the improvement in arm and hand function compared to those who received intense rehabilitation with sham stimulation.
COVID-19 Vaccine Can Cause False Positive Cancer Diagnosis
Radiologists, physicians and patients need to be aware of vaccination-related lymph node swelling, especially on mammograms
A 37-year-old woman developed a new, palpable left supraclavicular lymphadenopathy lump five days after her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the left arm. On the day of vaccination, the patient was asymptomatic. This is an example of how the vaccine can mimic cancer and swollen lymph nodes. Read more about this case study. Image used with permission of RSNA.
While the mass COVID-19 vaccination effort over the past four months is bringing closer the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, as with all things in medicine, it is not without a cost. But the cost here will be in terms of added patient anxiety and financial due to potential of additional, needed tests. There have been several alarms in peer-review literature and radiology societies the past couple months that the COVID-19 vac