Meeting set on end-of-life issues

In an effort to share information on current work in end-of-life and palliative care issues, the Oncology Care Center Palliative Care Task Force has organized a onetime meeting.

Matters to be addressed are ways in which the Hopkins community can exchange findings, call upon each other's expertise and collaborate to improve care at the end of life.

The luncheon discussion, to be held Jan. 22, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., 2140 Outpatient Center, is open to all JHMI faculty and staff interested in initiatives addressing palliative care and improving care of the dying.

To reserve a place, contact Michael Carducci at 410-614-3977 or carducci@ welchlink.welch.jhu.edu or Dana Naughton at 410-614-4629 or naughda@wpmail.onc.jhu.edu.

Estrogens may help protect women during stroke

Natural estrogens may offer some protection to premenopausal women threatened with severe brain damage during stroke, according to a study led by researchers at Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health.

Results of the study are published in the January issue of the journal Stroke. They show that in female rats, endogenous estrogens, those naturally produced by menstruating females, support blood flow to the brain during stroke and limit brain tissue damage.

"What we have is a possible explanation for the well-documented but poorly understood clinical observation that premenopausal women are at lower risk for stroke damage than men of the same age," says Patricia D. Hurn, senior author of the study and an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine. "It may also explain the steep rise in stroke incidence in women after menopause."

The researchers created strokes in anesthetized male and female rats by blocking blood flow for two hours through the middle cerebral artery, a brain blood vessel commonly linked to cerebrovascular disease and stroke in humans. Female rats had higher percentages of cerebral blood flow during stroke than males and smaller amounts of damaged brain tissue afterward.

When strokes were created in female rats whose ovaries had been surgically removed, and who therefore had lower levels of natural estrogen, stroke damage was essentially the same as in males. This indicates that female sex steroids, most likely estrogen, protect the brain, according to Hurn.

"A growing body of evidence indicates that estrogen has multiple vascular effects, all of which could contribute to the salvage of brain tissue during episodes of inadequate blood flow," she says.

Ongoing studies suggest that estrogen supplements would have similar effects, she says.
--Karen Infeld

Physical therapy clinic open for walk-ins

A satellite occupational and physical therapy clinic has been opened by the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation on the sixth floor of the Outpatient Center. The clinic, which is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, will try to accommodate walk-in appointments. For more information, call 410-955-0015 or 410-955-0016.