Written by Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com
(91outcomes.com) – A discovery by a Minneapolis medical researcher may lead to a new test to help identify Gulf War Illness, a unique disease that affects 250,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, according to official estimates, as well as other U.S. forces.
Using sophisticated brain mapping equipment and techniques called magnetoencephalography (MEG) that looks more like something from a science fiction movie, Dr. Aposotolos Georgopolous of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center has found a unique visual signature of a “core” brain abnormality in GWI.
According to Georgopolous, the essence of brain function is communication among neural ensembles, and neural communication is accomplished by ongoing, dynamic interactions among multiple “neuronal ensembles.” Dr. Georgopolous has used MEG to identify unique visual signatures of the neuron ensembles for an array of other diseases.
Conclusions Georgopolous’s MEG findings provide further evidence to a large and growing body of objective scientific evidence that shows GWI is a distinctly separate disease entity rooted in damage to, and dysfunction of the brain.
The findings were presented before the Congressionally chartered Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC-GWVI) in public meetings this week in Boston, Mass.
Georgopolous expressed the need for his current study needs to be extended to larger numbers so as to include detailed examination of subgroups with comorbidities — other diseases and conditions that may also be simultaneously afflicting some GWI patients.
However, his current findings remain compelling and his unique identification through highly advanced technology of a “core” brain abnormality in GWI has profound implications.