Gulf War Illness Proof of Real Physical Damage

Gulf War 90-91 Veterans are the Ghost Veterans not seen in large numbers during Veterans Day and the answer is because they are ill and need urgent attention!  The doctors at the VA need educational programs on this situation past tense.  For twenty years the veterans of the gulf war 1990-91 have come to the doors of the VA to receive less than adequate care and this is totally unacceptable!  This is not about compensation alone but more so about health care and treatment answers!  Their neurocognitive executive functions are damaged and this is not AGE Related!  There are visual problems that need attention.  There are neurological, endocrine, immunological problems that have gotten worse over twenty years.

As the holiday season approaches for this group of veterans a dire need is identified.  Help is needed.  The Gulf War Veterans want Dr Haley’s work at UTSW Medical funded, we need the next phases of his research to show the damage done to other cohorts of the Gulf War Veterans 90-91.  We need a massive educational program for all health care providers throughout the VA.  Where is the plan?  Where are the centers of excellence for gulf war veterans care?  We need them in all areas of the country to meet the demand that has lanquished for 20 years!

Neurotoxicology. 2010 Sep;31(5):493-501. Epub 2010 May 24.

Effects of low-level exposure to sarin and cyclosarin during the 1991 Gulf War on brain function and brain structure in US veterans.
Chao LL, Rothlind JC, Cardenas VA, Meyerhoff DJ, Weiner MW.

Center for Imaging of Neurodegenerative Diseases, San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 4150 Clement Street, 114 M, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA. [email protected]

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Potentially more than 100,000 US troops may have been exposed to the organophosphate chemical warfare agents sarin (GB) and cyclosarin (GF) when a munitions dump at Khamisiyah, Iraq was destroyed during the Gulf War (GW) in 1991. Although little is known about the long-term neurobehavioral or neurophysiological effects of low-dose exposure to GB/GF in humans, recent studies of GW veterans from the Devens Cohort suggest decrements in certain cognitive domains and atrophy in brain white matter occur individuals with higher estimated levels of presumed GB/GF exposure. The goal of the current study is to determine the generalizability of these findings in another cohort of GW veterans with suspected GB/GF exposure.

METHODS: Neurobehavioral and imaging data collected in a study on Gulf War Illness between 2002 and 2007 were used in this study. We focused on the data of 40 GW-deployed veterans categorized as having been exposed to GB/GF at Khamisiyah, Iraq and 40 matched controls. Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brain were analyzed using automated and semi-automated image processing techniques that produced volumetric measurements of gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and hippocampus.

RESULTS: GW veterans with suspected GB/GF exposure had reduced total GM and hippocampal volumes compared to their unexposed peers (p< or =0.01). Although there were no group differences in measures of cognitive function or total WM volume, there were significant, positive correlations between total WM volume and measures of executive function and visuospatial abilities in veterans with suspected GB/GF exposure.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that low-level exposure to GB/GF can have deleterious effects on brain structure and brain function more than decade later.

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
PMID: 20580739 [PubMed – in process]PMCID: PMC2934883Free PMC Article