Kendall, Fla. – A South Florida based study is set to investigate a potential treatment approach for Alzheimer’s disease.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael McDermott and his team at Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute are using low-intensity focused ultrasound therapy to target the tau protein in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
“And the idea is that that low-frequency ultrasound along with an intravenous microbubble agent will disrupt the blood-brain barrier and promote a clearance of the TAU protein from the brain,” McDermott said.
McDermott said patients are currently being screened for the study which is just getting underway.
The U.S. Preventive Service Task Force is recommending that all kids eight and older should be screened for anxiety.
The new recommendations include children who may not even show signs of depression or another mental health condition.
This is the first time the task force has made this type of recommendation.
The task force said 8 percent of children ages three to 17 have a current anxiety disorder.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of kids over age six with anxiety or depression rose from 5.4 percent in 2003 to 8.4 percent in 2012.
And a new study finds babies born during the pandemic need more time to reach certain developmental milestones.
Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland found infants born between March 2020 and May 2020 could not communicate as well by their first birthday as kids born between 2008 and 2011.
They found 77% of infants born during the early days of the pandemic could say a word like “bowl” or “cup” at a year old. That was down from 89% of infants born between 2008 and 2011.
Researchers say of the 309 infants in the study, 25% had never met another child their own age by their first birthday due to the pandemic.