Cuba’s Neurosciences Center contributes to healthcare services

Havana, Aug 1 (Prensa Latina) The Cuban Neurosciences Center (CNEURO) is currently working on several projects that will contribute to improve healthcare services and the quality of life of patients suffering from certain diseases.

Ernesto Velarde, head of the entity’s Electronics Department, told Prensa Latina that the Center is working on a neurotherapeutic stimulation device, called Estep, to treat epileptic patients.

The study with the device is still in progress, he said, but after a small test carried out with 18 individuals, we obtained promising results.

He said that a large group of people with refractory epilepsy, characterized by poor response to drugs, react instead to the electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve.

This is a tool with a lot of potential because, although it will have to be tested in another trial, we believe it could perhaps be used to reduce doses in patients who respond to prescription drugs, but whose side effects are numerous, he said.

CNEURO is also fully involved in the introduction into the healthcare system of Infantix, the screening procedure for newborns for detecting hearing and visual disorders.

Another project being worked on is an electrical impedance tomograph, originally designed to deal with Covid-19.