Nyakipambo
JF-Expert Member
- Nov 10, 2011
- 435
- 141
TEL AVIV (Reuters) -
Israel-based Neuronix, which has developed a non-invasive medical device to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, expects the system to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late 2014.
The device, which combines electromagnetic stimulation with computer-based cognitive training, is already approved for use in Europe, Israel and several Asian countries such as Singapore."You stimulate the brain on a biological level as well as on a cognitive level," Neuronix CEO Eyal Baror told Reuters, saying this double approach created longer-lasting benefits.
The device, which consists of a chair containing an electronic system and software in the back and a coil placed at the head, has been tested on mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients who suffer from dementia but are not totally dependent.
The system is in trials at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre. Patients are treated for one hour a day, five days a week over six weeks.
"We see improvement lasting for 9-12 months and the good thing is that patients can return and undergo treatment again," Baror said. "If out of 10 years the patients have left to live we can keep them at home in a relatively mild state of the disease for three, four, five years, it's a lot."
According to Alvaro Pascual-Leone, director of the hospital's Berenson-Allen Centre for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation, brain stimulation - or transcranial magnetic stimulation - involves a very low current applied to a specific part of the brain and is approved by the FDA for treatment of a variety of ailments and diagnostic applications.
Israeli medical device offers new Alzheimer's treatment | Yahoo! Health
Israel-based Neuronix, which has developed a non-invasive medical device to help to treat Alzheimer's disease, expects the system to be approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in late 2014.
The device, which combines electromagnetic stimulation with computer-based cognitive training, is already approved for use in Europe, Israel and several Asian countries such as Singapore."You stimulate the brain on a biological level as well as on a cognitive level," Neuronix CEO Eyal Baror told Reuters, saying this double approach created longer-lasting benefits.
The device, which consists of a chair containing an electronic system and software in the back and a coil placed at the head, has been tested on mild to moderate Alzheimer's patients who suffer from dementia but are not totally dependent.
The system is in trials at Harvard Medical School/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre. Patients are treated for one hour a day, five days a week over six weeks.
"We see improvement lasting for 9-12 months and the good thing is that patients can return and undergo treatment again," Baror said. "If out of 10 years the patients have left to live we can keep them at home in a relatively mild state of the disease for three, four, five years, it's a lot."
According to Alvaro Pascual-Leone, director of the hospital's Berenson-Allen Centre for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation, brain stimulation - or transcranial magnetic stimulation - involves a very low current applied to a specific part of the brain and is approved by the FDA for treatment of a variety of ailments and diagnostic applications.
Israeli medical device offers new Alzheimer's treatment | Yahoo! Health
