Posted on 05/26/2016 10:15:50 AM PDT by Prov1322
A standard brain scanning technique is showing promise for helping doctors distinguish between patients in a vegetative state and those with hidden signs of consciousness.
A study released Thursday is the latest to investigate using technology to help meet the challenge of making that distinction, which now is generally based on a doctor's bedside exam.
Patients in a vegetative state have open eyes and show periods of sleep and wakefulness, but they are unaware of themselves or others and unable to think, respond or do anything on purpose. Patients in a minimally conscious state show only intermittent and minimal signs of awareness of themselves or their environment.
Distinguishing between those two conditions is important because patients with even minimal awareness can be treated to help them communicate and to prevent suffering. They respond much better to stimulation from medication or sounds, touch, music and odors.
In the new research, released by the journal Current Biology, researchers from Denmark, Belgium and Yale University investigated using so-called FDG-PET scans to measure the brain's consumption of blood sugar, which brain cells use as fuel. They sought to establish a specific level of consumption that could distinguish between the two groups of patients.
They studied 49 vegetative patients and 65 minimally conscious ones, diagnosed by standard bedside procedures. They found that using a particular cutoff for PET scan results, they could correctly identify patient status 88 percent of the time.
The researchers checked the patient status again a year later. They found that 8 of the 11 vegetative patients who had scored above the cutoff, which had been associated with minimal consciousness, had in fact recovered consciousness. The other three had died.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Ethos? Science?
Yeah......It's called wallet full / wallet empty syndrome.
Nor all those who have been declared brain dead and heard their docs harvesting their organs. I wonder if they use sedatives before they harvest those or just think the person can’t feel anything?
Patients in a vegetative state have open eyes and show periods of sleep and wakefulness, but they are unaware of themselves or others and unable to think, respond or do anything on purpose. Patients in a minimally conscious state show only intermittent and minimal signs of awareness of themselves or their environment.
ALGore?
A haiku:
Terry Schiavo
Could not be reached for comment
‘Cuz Bush let her die
Haiku:
I want one of these
On my wife when we do it
To find signs of life
I kid, I kid. Just channeling Rodney Dangerfield.
Nice, but a small correction:
Terry Schiavo
Could not be reached for comment;
Bushes let her die
(Both weighed in on the issue before cowarding out)
I got yer ethos haiku RIGHT HERE, pal:
Can’t tell dem voter
From real brain dead person
More grant money, please
“Patients in a vegetative state have open eyes and show periods of sleep and wakefulness, but they are unaware of themselves or others and unable to think...”
A ludicrous statement. Since nobody on this planet possesses psychic powers to see into the mind of someone in this condition, we can’t possibly have any idea what they are aware of or whether they think.
Or they just check to see if the “organ donor” box is checked on the back of the driver’s license.
I’d guess they probably don’t use drugs for that. I mean, if you are harvesting liver and kidneys, any drugs you give the person would still be working their way through those organs when you cut them out.
“A ludicrous statement.”
No. A definition. The problem is determining IF a person is in fact in a vegetative state since we have no psychic powers to see into their minds.
Nailed it. Thank you.
“The problem is determining IF a person is in fact in a vegetative state since we have no psychic powers to see into their minds.”
Which makes it a definition with no practical application, so it’s ludicrous. We could define all sorts of conditions that may or may not exist, which are completely unverifiable. They’d be just as useful as this “vegetative state” nonsense.
Either a person is responsive and communicative to the point where we can ascertain they are aware and conscious, or they are not, in which case we can’t ascertain much of anything one way or the other.
#8 ~ Haiku:
I want one of these
On my wife when we do it
To find signs of life
I kid, I kid. Just channeling Rodney Dangerfield.
My wife was ALWAYS trouble
She starred in my bachelor’s party film
Things only got worse after...
I suffer from Dangerfield’s tourettes syndrome...
“Which makes it a definition with no practical application, so it’s ludicrous.”
Add to your list:
1. Empty
2. Insane
3. Ludicrous
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.