Cuban Academy of Sciences awards study on Ataxias
- Written by Luly Legrá Pichs
- Published in Health
- Hits: 1219
The Center for Research and Rehabilitation of Hereditary Ataxias (Cirah) in Holguín deserved a new award from the Cuban Academy of Sciences (ACC).
The research "Sleep microstructure disorders in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2 (SCA2): from the pathophysiology to biomarkers of the disease", by Dr. Roberto Rodríguez was awarded during the 2019 edition of the award-granting ceremony held each year in the institution.
Currently, there are almost 200 families with this condition in Cuba, which places the nation as the one with the largest number of people and the prevalence rate of this neurodegenerative disease in the world.
Scientist Roberto Rodríguez, deputy director general for research at the Cuban Neuroscience Center, explained to Prensa Latina that the study is based on the sleep analysis of 40 asymptomatic patients and carriers to extract highly sensitive electrophysiological parameters, which show cognitive decline, the severity of the disease and its prognosis.
Rodríguez added that these microstructural sleep markers provide the doctor with more objective information on cognitive functioning, so that rehabilitation aimed at this can be started from early stages of this hereditary pathology.
He highlighted that some of the results obtained so far in this project - started in 2007 at Cirah - have been focused on the characterization of the innermost structural elements of each phase of sleep.
"The selection of this field of study among other walk and speech-related disorders caused by ataxia is based on the potential of sleep to provide biomarkers that have not been recognized internationally until now. Today we already have several publications in high-level scientific magazines on the subject. ”
Roberto Rodríguez deserved the 2019 Carlos Juan Finlay medal, the highest distinction awarded by the Cuban Council of State in the field of scientific research to national and foreign personalities and also holds eleven ACC awards.
The Cirah - the only one of its kind in Cuba and in Latin America - was founded in 2000 in Holguín as a response to the reality of this health problem, mainly in this eastern province.
According to data from this institution, about 800 people with ataxia live in Cuba - SCA2 is the most frequent molecular form in the country-, 70 percent of them in Holguín, while 95 percent of them who live in other Cuban provinces are native from this eastern territory.
