When Dr. Bobby Mukkamala found himself on the other side of the exam table, he relied on the cutting-edge surgical techniques at Mayo Clinic to get him back to his professional work. 

While presenting at a professional meeting, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, normally an eloquent speaker, began speaking incoherently for about 90 seconds. 

"Given my age of 53 at the time, I thought it was a 'senior moment,'" says Dr. Mukkamala, an otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon from Flint, Michigan. 

His colleagues suspected he was having a stroke and convinced Dr. Mukkamala to go to a nearby emergency department for evaluation. Doctors suggested he may have had a transient ischemic attack, or ministroke. They recommended an MRI when he returned home.

That scan revealed something far more serious: a brain tumor. His journey as a patient had begun — and it would ultimately lead him to Mayo Clinic. 

Finding the right brain cancer care

After sharing the news with his family, Dr. Mukkamala tapped into his professional network. "Within a week of my diagnosis, I had half a dozen Zoom calls with neurosurgeons around the country," he says. "They were all wonderful with similar but slightly different perspectives on how to approach my case."

One call, however, stood out — his conversation with Dr. Ian Parney, (pictured here) a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and member of Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Parney knew the tumor was large, complex and near critical speech areas in the brain. "It was important to Dr. Mukkamala to protect those areas," says Dr. Parney.   

Unlike other surgeons who recommended two brain surgeries, Dr. Parney recommended a single awake craniotomy with speech mapping. During the procedure, the patient answers questions, and brain activity is monitored. This helps surgeons avoid damaging parts of the brain responsible for speech. His extensive experience — about 200 similar brain tumor procedures per year — gave hope to Dr. Mukkamala that the single operation was the best choice.

"Dr. Parney spent time answering every question we had," Dr. Mukkamala says. "That is what healthcare should be. As soon as we got off the call, my wife and kids said, 'That's it. That's where you're going.'"

Using advanced surgical techniques to guide care

In December 2024, Dr. Mukkamala underwent an awake craniotomy with speech mapping. The surgical team also used an intraoperative MRI. This advanced imaging technique provides real-time, high-resolution MRI scans while the surgery is in progress. 

"We do an MRI during the procedure to get the most accurate image so that we can remove the tumor safely," says Dr. Parney. Integrating functional imaging into image-guided systems in the operating room is a technique that Dr. Parney's team develops and tests to improve patient safety. He also correlates these techniques with novel strategies such as intraoperative electrophysiological mapping (using electrodes or electrical simulation to identify and preserve functions) and fluorescence-guided resection.

In Dr. Mukkamala's case, as part of the speech mapping, Dr. Nuri Ince, a professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at Mayo Clinic, provided a novel electrocorticography technique that showed critical areas of function without requiring direct cortical stimulation (electrical signals to the brain's outer layer), as is usually necessary.

Dr. Parney and his colleagues were able to remove more than 90% of Dr. Mukkamala's tumor without damaging the speech areas. Six weeks after surgery, he was once again speaking professionally and confidently to large groups.

Coordinating multidisciplinary cancer care

Dr. Mukkamala's cancerous brain tumor was a low-grade IDH-mutant astrocytoma. This type of brain tumor arises from astrocytes (a type of glial cell in the brain) and carries a mutation in the IDH (isocitrate dehydrogenase) gene. 

After surgery, Dr. Mukkamala met Dr. Ugur Sener, a neuro-oncologist at Mayo Clinic, who prescribed a new targeted drug to treat any remaining cancerous cells. The less toxic therapy allowed Dr. Mukkamala to avoid chemotherapy and radiation, which are standard treatments for brain cancer that can cause side effects such as fatigue and nausea. 

"We've built one of the largest brain tumor practices in the world here at Mayo," Dr. Parney says. "We have the right resources and the right teams in place to provide cutting-edge therapies and holistic care."

Bringing new 'tumor wisdom' to the bedside

While his life today looks much like it did before his diagnosis, Dr. Mukkamala says his perspective is forever changed by his experience. "I used to be more science than emotion, but I've learned there's room for both," he says. 

Dr. Mukkamala was alone when he received the news that he had cancer, much like most of his patients were when he delivered hard news. "It never occurred to me before that it was a problem to share a diagnosis when a patient was alone," Dr. Mukkamala says. He now tries to ensure his patients have support. 

It's one of the many lessons he attributes to "tumor wisdom." "My brain may be a little smaller," says Dr. Mukkamala, "but I think it's happier and wiser."

The post How advanced surgical skills returned a physician to the podium after brain cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On this week's episode of Tomorrow's Cure, we explore brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), cutting-edge technologies that create direct communication pathways between the human brain and external devices. Once considered science fiction, BCIs are now transforming lives. 

The podcast episode features Dr. Jonathon Parker, epilepsy and functional neurosurgeon, assistant professor of neurosurgery and neuroscience, and director of the Neuroelectronics Research Lab at Mayo Clinic; and Dr. Allen Waziri, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, and CEO and co-founder of iCE Neurosystems. Together, they discuss the science behind BCIs, current medical applications and the transformative possibilities they hold for the future.

BCIs offer groundbreaking possibilities in the treatment of neurological disorders, with the potential to restore mobility, communication and independence to people affected by severe neurologic injuries or conditions. Already, this technology is enabling users to control prosthetic limbs and digital interfaces through brain activity.

"The brain is a piece of hardware; the brain-computer interface is another piece of hardware we are connecting to the brain," says Dr. Parker. "We are used to communicating through speech, movement, understanding other sensory inputs, right? So this is digitizing those inputs to solve a problem." 

"BCIs, for several decades, is the translation of those electrical potentials that are coming off of the brain into something that we can understand on a computer side that will then functionalize whatever device — a robotic arm, a cursor on a screen, drive a wheelchair, so on and so forth," says Dr. Waziri.

BCIs are being used to assist people with neurological injuries that impair speech or movement. However, experts believe this technology has far greater potential. Beyond restoring motor function, BCIs could pave the way for continuous neurological monitoring and new forms of intervention, opening doors to transformative applications in brain health.

Dr. Parker emphasizes the broader clinical implications of the technology. "When delivered to clinicians so they can just monitor the brain signals overtime, (it) could have tremendous impact for epilepsy, depression, Alzheimer's — these conditions which are affecting huge swaths of our population. That's the future of this technology," he says. 

Don't miss this thought-provoking conversation on the evolving science of BCIs and the remarkable innovations that could redefine human-machine interaction. Listen to the latest episode of Tomorrow's Cure, and explore the full library of episodes and guests at tomorrowscure.com.

The post Tomorrow’s Cure: Mind meets machine — the future of neurological care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Fifty-four-year-old Chris Sams of Arizona has been living with coccidioidomycosis, more commonly known as valley fever, for nearly a decade. When his symptoms worsened and standard treatments failed, he turned to Mayo Clinic's Cocci Clinic in Arizona — one of the few centers in the country that treats the most advanced and complicated cases.

Now, on a more aggressive antifungal treatment, Chris says Mayo Clinic's multidisciplinary team approach has made all the difference.

Valley fever can be serious, especially when it spreads beyond the lungs. In rare cases, as it did with Chris, the coccidioides infection can reach the brain and cause neurological damage, requiring intensive treatments.

Watch: When valley fever spreads - Meet Chris and his complex case

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (3:00) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.

"I think I was biking up to 150 miles a week. I was biking quite a bit, lot of wind, lot of sand, lot of dust," says Chris.

That dust may have carried fungal spores that infected Chris with valley fever — a lung infection caused by breathing in spores that live in the soil but can become airborne.

"I was always sick. I was worn down. I lost a massive amount of weight. And that's really what threw us over the edge, is that something was going wrong," he says.

He ended up in the hospital.

"They put me in isolation floor because they didn't know if I had cancer, tuberculosis or if it was the continuance of valley fever," he recalls.

Tests confirmed it was valley fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis or cocci. The majority of people who get cocci recover well on their own, but in a small number of people, like Chris, the fungal spores can spread beyond the lungs, causing severe or even life-threatening symptoms.

"Less than 5% of people have it spread outside of the lung. It can go to many different places: bones, soft tissues and potentially the central nervous system. And, unfortunately, while it is a small percentage of people, when it does get into the central nervous system, it causes potentially devastating consequences," says Dr. Marie Grill, a Mayo Clinic neurologist.

In Chris' case, the spores had spread to his brain. That's when he sought help at Mayo Clinic's Cocci Clinic in Arizona, where a multidisciplinary team of specialists treats the most serious and complex cases of valley fever.

"Now we have our roadmap. We have a direction on where we're going — because otherwise, everything is just spiraling out of control," says Chris.

He began undergoing a special treatment delivered every few weeks right to his brain.

"It's an antifungal medication which can be delivered intravenously but can also be delivered directly into what we call the intrathecal space, which is essentially directly into the spaces where we have the spinal fluid," explains Dr. Grill.

The good news is doctors say Chris is showing signs of improvement.

"They think that there is an end in sight and hopefully we will wean off the intrathecal treatments. I mean, we've weaned it down to every two weeks," he says.

Doctors have yet to determine how long the treatments will need to continue, but Chris is confident he's heading in the right direction, with the right team.

"I have the best committed team around that talk to me, care about me, talk to me as a person and want me fixed."

While the Cocci Clinic cares for patients with serious cases of valley fever, Mayo Clinic is also advancing the field with a faster, more accurate test to speed up diagnosis and treatment.

Related post:

• (VIDEO) Faster diagnosis for valley fever: New test in development

The post (VIDEO) When valley fever spreads: Meet Chris and his complex case appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Just one day after undergoing brain shunt surgery at Mayo Clinic, 75-year-old Minoo Press put his wheelchair aside and walked out of the hospital on his own. For the first time in two years, his mind was clear. His balance had returned. He was no longer losing control of his bladder. 

The significant turnaround followed two years of steady cognitive and physical decline. A retired engineer known for his sharp mind and independence, Press gradually withdrew from daily life. Even simple routines became impossible. 

He visited leading medical centers across the country, undergoing spinal taps, surgical procedures and advanced imaging to evaluate for conditions ranging from Alzheimer's disease to Parkinson's. 

Some clinicians at those institutions also considered normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition in which excess fluid builds up in the brain. But because Mr. Press' symptoms overlapped with signs of neurodegenerative disease, the doctors could not confirm the diagnosis or recommend surgery. They told him there was nothing more they could do. 

From rapid diagnosis to life-changing care

After an exhaustive search for answers, Press' family brought him to Mayo Clinic where he was evaluated by Dr. David Jones, a neurologist and director of Mayo Clinic's Neurology Artificial Intelligence Program.   

Dr. Jones used an innovative artificial intelligence tool developed by his team, called StateViewer. The tool works with a widely available brain scan known as fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, or FDG-PET, comparing a patient's brain activity to thousands of confirmed dementia cases. It highlights patterns linked to nine types of the disease — from Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia to less common forms with overlapping symptoms. 

In a recent study published in Neurology, the tool identified the correct dementia type in 88% of cases and helped clinicians interpret scans up to three times more accurately and twice as fast as standard methods.  

In Press' case, the tool helped Dr. Jones rule out Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. That was the turning point.  

With neurodegenerative disease ruled out, Dr. Jones diagnosed Press with normal pressure hydrocephalus and confirmed that he was a candidate for a shunt procedure to relieve the pressure on his brain and potentially reverse the symptoms.  

A last-minute surgical cancellation made it possible for Press to have the procedure that same week.

Within three days at Mayo Clinic, he had a clear diagnosis, a treatment plan and underwent brain surgery to place a shunt that would drain excess fluid from his brain. The procedure was performed by Dr. Ben Elder, a neurosurgeon and clinician-scientist.  

Press, who traveled from Chicago, noticed immediate improvements. His thinking was sharper, his steps steadier and he felt like himself again. 

A clear mind, steady steps and hope

Dr. Jones says Press' case highlights the promise of combining AI with clinical care to accelerate diagnosis, scale expert clinical knowledge and help guide treatment planning.  

"When you're looking at overlapping symptoms, it's easy to miss the underlying cause," Dr. Jones says. "StateViewer gave us the clarity we needed to make an informed diagnosis and take action." 

Press continues physical therapy and says he's improving every day. He hopes his story can help others who are navigating the same often misdiagnosed and debilitating condition. 

"I can enjoy time with my family again and I can go out with my friends. I can even do my own taxes. These are the moments I thought I had lost forever," Mr. Press says. "Mayo Clinic gave me my life back." 

Related article:

Mayo Clinic's AI tool identifies 9 dementia types, including Alzheimer's, with one scan

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps clinicians identify brain activity patterns linked to nine types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, using a single, widely available scan — a transformative advance in early, accurate diagnosis. Read more.

The post How a Mayo Clinic neurologist used AI to help restore a patient’s health appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps clinicians identify brain activity patterns linked to nine types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, using a single, widely available scan — a transformative advance in early, accurate diagnosis. 

The tool, StateViewer, helped researchers identify the dementia type in 88% of cases, according to research published online on June 27, 2025, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. It also enabled clinicians to interpret brain scans nearly twice as fast and with up to three times greater accuracy than standard workflows. Researchers trained and tested the AI on more than 3,600 scans, including images from patients with dementia and people without cognitive impairment. 

This innovation addresses a core challenge in dementia care: identifying the disease early and precisely, even when multiple conditions are present. As new treatments emerge, timely diagnosis helps match patients with the most appropriate care when it can have the greatest impact. The tool could bring advanced diagnostic support to clinics that lack neurology expertise. 

The rising toll of dementia 

Dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with nearly 10 million new cases each year. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form, is now the fifth-leading cause of death globally. Diagnosing dementia typically requires cognitive tests, blood draws, imaging, clinical interviews and specialist referrals. Even with extensive testing, distinguishing conditions such as Alzheimer's, Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia remains challenging, including for highly experienced specialists. 

StateViewer was developed under the direction of David Jones, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist and director of the Mayo Clinic Neurology Artificial Intelligence Program.  

"Every patient who walks into my clinic carries a unique story shaped by the brain's complexity," Dr. Jones says. "That complexity drew me to neurology and continues to drive my commitment to clearer answers. StateViewer reflects that commitment — a step toward earlier understanding, more precise treatment and, one day, changing the course of these diseases." 

To bring that vision to life, Dr. Jones worked alongside Leland Barnard, Ph.D., a data scientist who leads the AI engineering behind StateViewer. 

"As we were designing StateViewer, we never lost sight of the fact that behind every data point and brain scan was a person facing a difficult diagnosis and urgent questions," Dr. Barnard says. "Seeing how this tool could assist physicians with real-time, precise insights and guidance highlights the potential of machine learning for clinical medicine." 

Turning brain patterns into clinical insight 

The tool analyzes a fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scan, which shows how the brain uses glucose for energy. It then compares the scan to a large database of scans from people with confirmed dementia diagnoses and identifies patterns that match specific types, or combinations, of dementia. 

Alzheimer's typically affects memory and processing regions, Lewy body dementia involves areas tied to attention and movement, and frontotemporal dementia alters regions responsible for language and behavior. StateViewer displays these patterns through color-coded brain maps that highlight key areas of brain activity, giving all clinicians, even those without neurology training, a visual explanation of what the AI sees and how it supports the diagnosis. 

Mayo Clinic researchers plan to expand the tool's use and will continue evaluating its performance in a variety of clinical settings. 

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

### 

About Mayo Clinic 
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contact:  

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 

The post Mayo Clinic’s AI tool identifies 9 dementia types, including Alzheimer’s, with one scan  appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Tomorrow's Cure is back for season three. In recognition of Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, the episode highlights one of the most devastating and complex diagnoses, impacting patients, families, and caregivers alike. With cases on the rise globally, the urgency to better understand, detect and treat this complex brain disorder has never been greater. 

The podcast episode features insights from Dr. Vijay Shah, Kinney Executive Dean of Research at Mayo Clinic; Heidi Dieter, chief research officer at Mayo Clinic; and Amy Goldman, CEO and chair of GHR Foundation. Together, they discuss the latest breakthroughs in Alzheimer's disease research and their potential for prevention, early diagnosis and future treatment strategies.

A major focus of today's research is identifying Alzheimer's earlier, even before symptoms appear. Early diagnosis allows for preventive interventions that may slow or even stop disease progression. Dieter shares the long-term vision of Alzheimer's research, "The long-term goals are to develop tools that help predict and prevent cognitive decline in dementia — also, developing risk prediction models for cognitive impairment."

Researchers are exploring innovative diagnostic tools, including blood tests, genetic screening and even voice analysis. These emerging methods are generating excitement among researchers for their potential to detect Alzheimer's earlier and more efficiently.

"The understanding of Alzheimer's has evolved over the last two decades from being something that wasn't able to be diagnosed until someone had passed away and had an autopsy, to now a diagnostic potential," Goldman says.

One of the most promising and scalable developments is voice-based detection. Researchers have found that subtle changes in a person's voice may appear well before traditional cognitive symptoms emerge.

"Depending on the day and how you're feeling, your voice sounds different," says Dr. Shah. "If you are starting to have mild cognitive impairment, your voice is going to start sounding different. 

"As an individual, it may not be useful, but when we take voice recordings from millions and millions of people and put them into an AI model, it allows us to identify changes in voice that are predictive of mild cognitive impairment. That's the type of biomarker we can scale."

Don't miss this conversation on the evolving science of Alzheimer's disease and the innovative efforts that may one day change its trajectory. Listen to the latest episode of Tomorrow's Cure, and explore the full library of episodes and guests at tomorrowscure.com.

Related stories:

• Mayo Clinic researchers develop first salivary gland regenerative biobank to combat chronic dry mouth - Mayo Clinic News Network
• Mayo Clinic researchers to study causes of rapidly progressive dementia - Mayo Clinic News Network
• Mayo Clinic contributes to national Alzheimer's disease research priorities in new report - Mayo Clinic News Network

The post Tomorrow’s Cure: New discoveries reshape Alzheimer’s disease detection appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Alzheimer's disease, marked by memory loss, trouble concentrating and thinking, and changes in personality and behavior, devastates patients, their families and loved ones. With new treatments available for people with early signs of Alzheimer's disease, there is a growing need for accessible and cost-effective tests to diagnose Alzheimer's disease sooner. In a new study, Mayo Clinic researchers confirmed the accuracy of an FDA-approved blood test that can be used at outpatient memory clinics to diagnose the disease in patients with a range of cognitive impairment. The findings are published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

Standard ways of measuring the buildup of toxic proteins in the brain that indicate Alzheimer's disease include positron emission tomography, or PET scans, and spinal taps. But these tests can be expensive and invasive. More accessible, non-invasive and cost-effective biomarkers — measurable indicators of a disease — are needed to improve diagnoses broadly in clinical settings. 

"Our study found that blood testing affirmed the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease with 95% sensitivity and 82% specificity,” says corresponding author Gregg Day, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist, dementia specialist and clinical researcher. "When performed in the outpatient clinical setting, this is similar to the accuracy of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of the disease and is much more convenient and cost-effective."

The research team says their findings show promise in:

• Better identifying research participants with Alzheimer's disease brain changes.
• Screening and selecting patients with Alzheimer's disease for clinical trials.
• Assessing how patients respond to therapy in clinical trials.
  

More than 500 patients receiving treatment for a range of memory issues at the outpatient Memory Disorder Clinic at Mayo Clinic in Florida participated in the study. They included patients with early- and late-onset cognitive impairment, typical and atypical Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia and vascular cognitive impairment. 

Patients ranged from 32 to 89 years old, with the average age of symptom onset being 66. Alzheimer's disease was determined to be the underlying cause of the symptoms in 56% of the patients. The team also conducted serum tests to measure kidney disease, which can influence plasma biomarker concentrations. 

Mayo Clinic Laboratories tested for two proteins in blood plasma that are associated with amyloid plaque buildup, the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease: Aβ42/40 and p-tau217. The researchers found that p-tau217 levels were higher in patients with Alzheimer's disease versus those without the disease. Higher plasma p-tau217 concentrations were also associated with impaired kidney function, which researchers say should be taken into account when performing the blood test. 

Plasma p-tau217 concentrations were positive in 267 out of 509 patients, including 233 of 246 patients (95%) with cognitive impairment attributed to Alzheimer's disease.

The study was featured at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in April. 

In a previous study, researchers from the Mayo Clinic Laboratories team showed the utility of these blood tests compared to amyloid PET scans in research participants. 

Dr. Day says the next steps in this research are to evaluate blood-based testing in more diverse patient populations and people with early Alzheimer's disease who show no cognitive symptoms. The team also wants to evaluate disease-specific factors that may alter biomarker accuracy in clinical trials.

Other Mayo Clinic authors include Yoav Piura, M.D., Christian Lachner, M.D., Joshua Bornhorst, Ph.D., Alicia Algeciras Schimnich, Ph.D., and Neill Graff-Radford, M.D. For a full list of authors, funding and disclosures, see the paper.

###

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. 

Media contact:

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

The post Mayo Clinic researchers validate blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease in outpatient memory clinics appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Editors Note: May is National Stroke Awareness Month.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and a major cause of serious disability for adults. More than 795,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke each year. Risk increases with age, especially after 55, but strokes can occur at any age.

Recovering from a stroke varies from person to person, says Dr. Felix Chukwudelunzu, M.D., a neurologist at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The rate of recovery is generally greatest in the weeks and months after a stroke. However, there is evidence that performance can improve even 12 to 18 months after a stroke.

What is a stroke?

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, preventing brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients. Brain cells begin to die in minutes,

A stroke is a medical emergency, and prompt treatment is crucial. Early action can reduce brain damage and other complications. 

Symptoms

It is important to be aware of stroke signs and symptoms so you can act quickly and seek necessary treatment. Symptoms of stroke include:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding.
• Sudden trouble seeing or blurred vision in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a stroke, you should call 911 and seek emergency medical care right away.

A stroke can cause temporary or permanent disabilities, depending on how long the brain lacks blood flow and which part was affected. Complications can include paralysis or loss of muscle movement, difficulty talking or swallowing, memory loss or thinking difficulties, emotional problems, pain, and changes in behavior and self-care ability.

Rehabilitation

Stroke rehabilitation is an important part of recovery after stroke. There are many approaches to stroke rehabilitation. Your rehabilitation plan will depend on the part of the body or type of ability affected by your stroke.

The goal of stroke rehabilitation is to help you relearn skills you lost when a stroke affected part of your brain. Stroke rehabilitation can help you regain independence and improve your quality of life.

The severity of stroke complications and each person's ability to recover vary widely. Researchers have found that people who participate in a focused stroke rehabilitation program perform better than most people who don't have stroke rehabilitation.

The duration of your stroke rehabilitation depends on the severity of your stroke and related complications. Some stroke survivors recover quickly. But most need some form of long-term stroke rehabilitation, lasting possibly months or years after their stroke.

The post Recovering from a stroke appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Editors note: May is National Stroke Awareness Month

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My mom had a stroke recently and is really struggling with her speech. She's in speech therapy, but could you please tell me more about this side effect of a stroke?

ANSWER: Aphasia is a disorder that affects a person's ability to retrieve language. It’s as if their brain's word cabinet has fallen over and mixed their words around, resulting in varying levels and forms of impairment, including auditory comprehension and verbal expression.

Causes

A stroke happens when blood vessels supplying the brain burst or are blocked. This reduces blood flow to the brain, depriving it of the essential nutrients and oxygen needed to support brain cell life. A stroke and its damage to the primary language centers in the left hemisphere of the brain are the most common cause of aphasia. 

Aphasia can also develop due to a brain tumor, infection or degenerative disease. The underlying cause of aphasia and the location of a stroke or tumor determine the severity of a person's language difficulties.

Temporary aphasia can arise during a migraine. It can also occur from a seizure or transient ischemic attack (TIA), sometimes called a mini-stroke. Anyone who experiences a TIA is at an elevated risk for a full-blown stroke in the future.

Symptoms

A person who is affected by aphasia may:

• Experience difficulty understanding conversations or directions.
• Have trouble writing coherent sentences.
• Speak in brief or incomplete sentences.
• Use words or sentences that don’t make sense.
• Have difficulty reading and recognizing letters.

Aphasia can be the first sign of stroke. If you or a loved one experiences these symptoms, seek medical help immediately.

Types of aphasia

Your healthcare team may classify aphasia as:

• Broca's (non-fluent) aphasia. Non-fluent aphasia is marked by decreased language output, difficulty identifying words, and incomplete or short sentences. People with non-fluent aphasia are usually aware of their communication difficulties because their cognition and comprehension are mostly intact.
• Wernicke (fluent) aphasia. Fluent aphasia is identified by incoherent word order, word combination errors, grammar mistakes and incorrect word choices. People with fluent aphasia may have a steady flow of speech filled with jargon and made-up words. They also experience paraphasias — substituting a different sound or word for the intended word. People with fluent aphasia typically have difficulty comprehending spoken and written language.
• Global (mixed) aphasia. Global aphasia results from a major stroke that extensively affects the brain, causing cognition, comprehension and language difficulties. This type of aphasia usually has both receptive and language-expression components.

Testing

A common initial test to determine the cause of aphasia is a CT scan or MRI. In addition, testing usually involves exercises and observations to gauge the person's ability to:

• Explain a situation shown on paper.
• Follow directions.
• Answer questions.
• Have a conversation.
• Read and write.
• Repeat words and sentences.

Treatment and coping

Speech-language therapy is the most common form of treatment. Early intervention and timely treatment are essential for achieving maximum results.

A speech-language pathologist works with patients to regain as many previous language skills as possible or, with certain diseases and conditions, to maintain their communication ability.

Treatment exercises often incorporate activities relevant to the patient to increase motivation and participation. Exercises may include saying their name, address, birth date or family members' names; ordering food from a menu; or writing on a greeting card.

To help someone with aphasia, family and friends can:

• Continue to treat the person as a mature adult and include them in conversations.
• Reduce visual distraction and background noises, such as the TV, radio and other conversations.
• Be sure you have the person's attention before speaking to them.
• Keep messages short and simple. Speak slowly but naturally. Speaking louder doesn't increase understanding.
• Use gestures, facial cues and voice intonation to help the person understand the message.
• Don't assume they understand what you're saying. Your loved one may respond with head nods and sounds of agreement but not understand what's being said.
• When repeating a statement, avoid changing your language around, use simple language and repeat the phrase the same way.
• Recognize that their intelligence has nothing to do with their ability to communicate. 
• Encourage communication and be patient.
• Give your loved one plenty of time to respond, and try not to answer for them.

Support groups can also aid healing and coping for patients and family members.

Delaney Collins and Kinsey Weyer, Speech-Language Pathology, Mayo Clinic Health System, La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The post Mayo Clinic Q and A: Aphasia can be the first sign of stroke appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Pick's disease, a neurodegenerative disease of unknown genetic origin, is a rare type of frontotemporal dementia that affects people under the age of 65. The condition causes changes in personality, behavior and sometimes language impairment. In patients with the disease, tau proteins build up and form abnormal clumps called Pick bodies, which restrict nutrients to the brain and cause neurodegeneration. The only way to diagnose the disease is by looking at brain tissue under a microscope after a person dies.

In a new study, Mayo Clinic researchers have identified gene expression changes in the brains of people with Pick's disease. Since Pick's disease is a rare neurodegenerative disorder that cannot be diagnosed during life, their findings offer valuable insights that may help guide the development of biomarkers and therapeutic strategies.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida, University College London in England and collaborators worldwide have established the Pick's Disease International Consortium to study a specific MAPT gene variation known as MAPT H2 that makes the tau protein and acts as a driver of disease. They investigated a connection between the gene and disease risk, age at onset, and duration of Pick's disease. Their findings are reported in The Lancet Neurology.

Mayo Clinic researchers identified the first MAPT gene mutations for a behavioral form of dementia in 1998, and other genetic changes associated with related dementias in 2001, which paved the way to understanding the mechanisms of tau-related disease. This new study confirms a tau genetic factor linked specifically to Pick's disease and opens up new avenues of therapeutic design.

"Our research could have profound implications for the development of therapies for Pick's disease and other related neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy," says Owen Ross, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neuroscientist and senior author of the paper. The consortium hosts a database of clinical, pathological and demographic information about patients with the disease who donated their brain tissue for science.

To conduct the study, researchers investigated brain samples of 338 patients confirmed to have Pick's disease to compare with blood samples from 1,312 neurologically healthy individuals. Patients confirmed to have the disease came from 35 brain banks and hospitals in North America, Europe and Australia between 2020 and 2023. The Mayo Clinic Brain Bank was among the sites in the study that provided the largest collection of samples.

Analyzing DNA from the blood samples and brain tissue, the research team recorded baseline information on study participants, including age at disease onset, age at death for those with Pick's disease, and sex and age at blood collection for the control group. Disease duration was calculated by the difference between age at Pick's disease onset and age at death. In addition, the researchers looked at clinical characteristics such as clinical diagnosis, impairment in behavior and language.

"We found that the MAPT H2 genetic variant is associated with an increased risk of Pick's disease in people of European descent," says Dr. Ross. "We were only able to determine that because of the global consortium, which greatly increased the sample size of pathology cases to study with Pick's disease."

The team's next steps are to expand the consortium to the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, further resolve the genetic architecture of the disease, and assess this specific genetic variant as a biomarker or test for clinical diagnosis of Pick's disease. There is currently no clinical test or diagnosis available for Pick's disease. For the first time, the creation of the consortium may allow for the development of a clinical test.

Funding for this research at Mayo Clinic was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the State of Florida Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program, and Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. For a full list of authors, collaborating institutions and disclosures, see the paper.

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Media contact: 

• Tia Ford, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu 

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