Forum for Science, Industry and Business

A tool to better screen and treat aneurysm patients

Using radiocarbon dating to date samples of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysm (CA) tissue, the team, led by neurosurgeon Nima Etminan, found that the main structural constituent and protein -- collagen type I -- in cerebral aneurysms is distinctly younger than once thought.

A cerebral aneurysm is a blood-filled bulge formed in response to a weakness in the wall at branching brain arteries. If the bulge bursts (shown left), the person can undergo a brain hemorrhage, which is a subtype of stroke and a life-threatening condition. An international team including a researcher from Lawrence Livermore found that the main structural constituent and protein in cerebral aneurysms is distinctly younger than once thought. The new research helps identify patients more likely to suffer from an aneurysm and embark on a path toward prevention.

The new research helps identify patients more likely to suffer from an aneurysm and embark on a path toward prevention.

Simplified, a CA is a blood-filled bulge formed in response to a weakness in the wall at branching brain arteries. If the bulge bursts, the person can undergo a brain hemorrhage, which is a subtype of stroke and a life-threatening condition.

For decades, doctors have assumed that CAs rarely undergo structural change, and earlier theories speculated that CAs grow at a constant rate. The new findings, which appear in the June print issue of the journal Stroke, challenge the concept that CAs are present for decades and that they undergo only sporadic episodes of structural change. In view of these findings, it seems more likely that they alternate between periods of stability and instability during which they are prone to rupture.

For patients with CAs, who are more likely to undergo an aneurysm rupture due to risk factors such as smoking or hypertension, the international team including LLNL's Bruce Buchholz found that the age of collagen type I was significantly younger than those samples taken from people with no risk factors.

The ample amount of relatively young collagen type I in CAs suggests that collagen is changing all the time in aneurysms, which is significantly more rapid in patients with risk factors, Buchholz said.

Radiocarbon bomb-pulse dating uses an isotopic signature created by above-ground nuclear testing between 1955 and 1963, which nearly doubled the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere.

When the above-ground test-ban treaty took effect in 1963, atmospheric levels of radiocarbon began to decline as carbon-14 migrated into the oceans and biosphere. Living organisms naturally incorporate carbon into their tissues as the element moves through the food chain. As a result, the concentration of carbon-14 leaves a permanent time stamp on every biological molecule.

"This research may help doctors to formulate better screening and identification of those people at increased risk of an aneurysm rupture," Buchholz said.

The prevalence of unruptured CAs in the general population is 2 percent to 3 percent. The rate of death when they rupture is more than 35 percent. The high rate of death has led the medical community to try to understand the formation and natural history of these lesions to define standards for screening, treatment and identification of those CAs that are likely to rupture.

Other institutions include: Department of Neurosurgery and Institute of Forensic Medicine Heinrich-Heine University Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Westfalian Wilhelms-University; Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic; Department of Epidemiology, University of Iowa; Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital;  Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science and the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital; and the Department of Surgery,University of Toronto.

Anne Stark | Eurek Alert!
Further information:
https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2014/May/NR-14-05-06.html#.U4iPLWGKDcs

Im Focus: Can we see monkeys from space? Emerging technologies to map biodiversity

An international team of scientists has proposed a new multi-disciplinary approach in which an array of new technologies will allow us to map biodiversity and the risks that wildlife is facing at the scale of whole landscapes. The findings are published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. This international research is led by the Kunming Institute of Zoology from China, University of East Anglia, University of Leicester and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research.

Using a combination of satellite and ground data, the team proposes that it is now possible to map biodiversity with an accuracy that has not been previously...

Im Focus: Climate satellite: Tracking methane with robust laser technology

Heatwaves in the Arctic, longer periods of vegetation in Europe, severe floods in West Africa – starting in 2021, scientists want to explore the emissions of the greenhouse gas methane with the German-French satellite MERLIN. This is made possible by a new robust laser system of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT in Aachen, which achieves unprecedented measurement accuracy.

Methane is primarily the result of the decomposition of organic matter. The gas has a 25 times greater warming potential than carbon dioxide, but is not as...

Im Focus: How protons move through a fuel cell

Hydrogen is regarded as the energy source of the future: It is produced with solar power and can be used to generate heat and electricity in fuel cells. Empa researchers have now succeeded in decoding the movement of hydrogen ions in crystals – a key step towards more efficient energy conversion in the hydrogen industry of tomorrow.

As charge carriers, electrons and ions play the leading role in electrochemical energy storage devices and converters such as batteries and fuel cells. Proton...

Im Focus: A unique data centre for cosmological simulations

Scientists from the Excellence Cluster Universe at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich have establised "Cosmowebportal", a unique data centre for cosmological simulations located at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The complete results of a series of large hydrodynamical cosmological simulations are available, with data volumes typically exceeding several hundred terabytes. Scientists worldwide can interactively explore these complex simulations via a web interface and directly access the results.

With current telescopes, scientists can observe our Universe’s galaxies and galaxy clusters and their distribution along an invisible cosmic web. From the...

Im Focus: Scientists develop molecular thermometer for contactless measurement using infrared light

Temperature measurements possible even on the smallest scale / Molecular ruby for use in material sciences, biology, and medicine

Chemists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in cooperation with researchers of the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM)...