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An experimental body-cooling treatment used on an injured National Football League player offers promise for preventing paralysis in people who sustain severe spinal cord injuries, researchers said yesterday. But the value of "modest hypothermia," the treatment used on Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills after he was injured in a game Sunday, is questioned by doctors who want to see more evidence that it helps those patients. The idea behind the treatment is to lower the body temperature — but not by too much in order to avoid complications — to restrict damage to the spinal cord. "Right now, it's...

DOCTORS IN RUSSIA PROVE STEM CELLS CAN BE USED IN TREATING SPINE INJURIES MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) - It has been widely believed until recently that nerve cells cannot reproduce themselves, especially those of the spinal cord. But doctors at the Neurology Clinic of Russia's Blokhin Oncology Research Center have now challenged this belief by performing six successful surgical operations on patients with spine injuries. The patients, thought before the surgery to be bedridden for the rest of their lives, are now learning to walk again, the Trud newspaper reports. It was Andrei Bryukhovetsky, Director General of the Neurology...

Amgen's anemia drug, the best-selling product developed so far by the biotechnology industry, might have broad new uses, recent studies have found. Laboratory and animal studies have shown that in addition to bolstering the body's red blood cells, the drug, EPO, is present in the central nervous system and acts to protect cells and tissues from damage and death. That could make it useful as a treatment for strokes, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis and many other ailments. Testing in humans is in very early stages. A small study by academic scientists in Germany found that EPO, when given within...