Author Archives: James Carroll

The American Society for Photobiology is the latest and probably most academic organisation to turn it’s gaze towards Low Level Light Therapy (rather than just laser). If you have an academic interest in the mechanisms behind LLLT then this meeting might be the highlight of your year and we urge you to participate.

BRAZIL. Scientists at Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense evaluated the effect of laser on the mitochondrial respiratory chain after traumatic muscular injury on rats. Results showed that LLLT significantly increased the activities of complexes I, II, III, IV and succinate dehydrogenase suggesting that laser may induce an increase in mitochondrial ATP synthesis and accelerate the muscle healing process.

more details here

28 Feb 2009	USA	Houston
29 March 2009	UK	Edinburgh
6 April 2009	USA	Washington DC
19 April 2009	UK	London
10 May 2009	UK	Bristol
07 June 2009	UK	Manchester
14 June 2009	USA	Los Angeles
26 Sept 2009	USA	Chicago

Effectiveness and Safety of Transcranial Laser Therapy for Acute Ischemic Stroke
660 patients with acute ischemic stroke
No treatment parameters were disclosed in this paper other than 808nm, 20 mins, 20 points
The median time to treatment 16 hours (range 2:30 – 24 hours)
Time to treatment did not determine the outcome
NIHSS 11-15 patients (NIH Stroke Scale (moderately severe)) scored best

See also previous post for press release and comment

The outcome of Photothera’s clinical trial on 660 patients with acute ischemic stroke was presented at the American Heart Association’s International Stroke Conference in San Diego yesterday. Though results were not as good as hoped for there were some encouraging trends.

The LLLT group achieved a favourable outcome in 36.3% of patients compared to only 30.9% of patients in the placebo group at 90 days. However a post-hoc analysis of 434 patients who suffered moderate to moderately severe strokes showed a favorable outcome in 51.6% of patients in the TLT group compared to 41.9% of patients in the sham group. This 9.7% treatment effect was statistically significant (p-value 0.044). Adverse events did not differ between groups, providing evidence of the safety of LLLT.

It will be interesting to see the treatment parameters when the paper is published.

Below is the full press release

Just in case we have not got the message yet, Heidi Abrahamse group in South Africa demonstrate that more laser is not always better in this invitro study published yesterday.

As we know, one of the first responses to LED and Laser light absorption is release of or production of Nitric Oxide (NO) and that this reactive molecule modulates a cascade of secondary biological responses ultimately resulting in cytoprotection and/or gross physiological change, (particularly in stressed / hypoxic tissues).

In the current issue of J Molec Cell Cardiol, Zhang and colleagues utilize cultured cardiomyocytes subjected to hypoxia and reoxygenation to demonstrate that 5 min of NIR treatment upon reoxygenation  protects the cells from injury and eventual death and that this cytoprotection is dependent on the release of nitric oxide.

but how? read on