Neurology Commons^™

Rituximab Induces Sustained Reduction Of Pathogenic B Cells In Patients With Peripheral Nervous System Autoimmunity., Michael A Maurer, Goran Rakocevic, Carol S Leung, Isaak Quast, Martin Lukačišin, Norbert Goebels, Christian Münz, Hedda Wardemann, Marinos Dalakas, Jan D Lünemann

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

The B cell-depleting IgG1 monoclonal antibody rituximab can persistently suppress disease progression in some patients with autoimmune diseases. However, the mechanism underlying these long-term beneficial effects has remained unclear. Here, we evaluated Ig gene usage in patients with anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein (anti-MAG) neuropathy, an autoimmune disease of the peripheral nervous system that is mediated by IgM autoantibodies binding to MAG antigen. Patients with anti-MAG neuropathy showed substantial clonal expansions of blood IgM memory B cells that recognized MAG antigen. The group of patients showing no clinical improvement after rituximab therapy were distinguished from clinical responders by a higher load of clonal …

The Appropriateness Of Long-Term Opioids To Treat Chronic Back Pain, Thomas Watanabe, Michael Salino, Adam Schreiber

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Faculty Papers

Point/Counterpoint Case Scenario: A 55-year old man presents to a pain clinic upon referral from his primary care physician. His symptom is axial low back pain. His pain started approximately 1 year earlier without a specific inciting event. He denies radiation of pain into the lower extremities. There is no bowel or bladder involvement. There is no directional preference. He reports pain "all the time," with minimal specific exacerbating or relieving factors. There is no medical-legal involvement. His medical history is significant for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, and sleep apnea. He is a divorced father of 2 adult children. He is …

Cosmetic Neurology: Enhancement Of The Mind And Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder Medication Abuse Among College Students, Mary M. Huff

Senior Honors Theses

Cosmetic neurology is becoming increasingly popular, and it is not just sleep deprived, over worked college students who are interested. People are beginning to seek off-label prescriptions for medications that are typically used to treat disorders such as attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) or narcolepsy, while researchers are trying to create drugs used solely for mind enhancement purposes. Along with these drugs come many legal and ethical quandaries relating to the regulation of current use as well as the what ifs of future possibilities. A survey was conducted among college students regarding the diagnosis of ADHD, the abuse of ADHD …

My Patient Has A Lot Of Variability In His Blood Pressure Measurements? Should I Be Worried? What Can I Do Which May Be Better?, Quratulain Shaikh, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

My Patient Has A Lot Of Variability In His Blood Pressure Measurements? Should I Be Worried? What Can I Do Which May Be Better, Quratulain Shaikh, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Section of Neurology

No abstract provided.

Knowledge And Attitudes About Tetanus And Rabies: A Population-Based Survey From Karachi, Pakistan, Mohammad Wasay, Abdul Malik, Ammad Fahim, Adnan Yousuf, Rajesh Chawla, Haroon Daniel, Muhammad Rafay, Iqbal Azam, Junaid Razzak

Section of Neurology

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate public knowledge regarding predisposing factors, fatality and prevention of Tetanus and Rabies and attitudes toward vaccination and post-exposure prophylaxis.

METHODS: A population-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted in all the 18 towns of Karachi, the largest metropolitan city of Pakistan, from December 2007 to January 2008. Men and women of more than 18 years of age were included in the study which used a self-reporting questionarre as its tool.

RESULTS: There were 1201 people interviewed by the study. The majority of respondents had known or heard about Tetanus (n = 973; 81%) and rabies (n = 699; 58%). …

Syndrome Of Hepatic Cirrhosis, Dystonia, Polycythemia, And Hypermanganesemia Caused By Mutations In Slc30a10, A Manganese Transporter In Man, Karin Tuschl, Peter T. Clayton, Sidney M., Jr. Gospe, Shamshad Gulab, Shahnaz Ibrahim, Pratibha Singhi, Roosy Aulakh, Reinaldo T. Ribeiro, Orlando G. Barsottini, Maha S. Zaki, Maria Luz Del Rosario, Sarah Dyack, Victoria Price, Andrea Rideout, Kevin Gordon, Ron A. Wevers, W. K. 'Kling' Chong, Philippa B. Mills

Section of Neurology

Environmental manganese (Mn) toxicity causes an extrapyramidal, parkinsonian-type movement disorder with characteristic magnetic resonance images of Mn accumulation in the basal ganglia. We have recently reported a suspected autosomal recessively inherited syndrome of hepatic cirrhosis, dystonia, polycythemia, and hypermanganesemia in cases without environmental Mn exposure. Whole-genome mapping of two consanguineous families identified SLC30A10 as the affected gene in this inherited type of hypermanganesemia. This gene was subsequently sequenced in eight families, and homozygous sequence changes were identified in all affected individuals. The function of the wild-type protein and the effect of sequence changes were studied in the manganese-sensitive yeast strain …

Neurology Training In Pakistan, Sarwar Jamil Siddiqui

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Loss Of Consciousness In Bathrooms, Mohammad Wasay

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

No abstract provided.

Old Remedies For Epilepsy: Avicenna's Medicine., A A Asadi-Pooya, A R Nikseresht, E Yaghoubi

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The history of epilepsy and its treatments dates back to at least 4 millennia. Avicenna, c. 980 AD in Bukhara, Khorasan-1037 in Hamedan was a Persian-speaking Iranian physician, who has many recommendations and suggested various therapies for epilepsy in his book, The Canon of Medicine.

METHODS: We first reviewed the most important ancient treatments for epilepsy mentioned by Avicenna and considered those as the key words for our next step. Then, we made a literature search (medline and scopus) with those key words to find out new scientific findings in modern medicine about the Avicenna's suggestions.

RESULTS: Among the …

Can Community Based Interventions Control Hypertension In Developing Countries? What Is The Evidence From Pakistan?, Farzin Majeed, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

Can Community Based Interventions Control Hypertension In Developing Countries? What Is The Evidence From Pakistan?, Farzin Majeed, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Section of Neurology

No abstract provided.

Early Versus Delayed Decompression For Traumatic Cervical Spinal Cord Injury: Results Of The Surgical Timing In Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study (Stascis), Michael G. Fehlings, Alexander Vaccaro, Jefferson R. Wilson, Anoushka Singh, David W. Cadotte, James S. Harrop, Bizhan Aarabi, Christopher Shaffrey, Marcel Dvorak, Charles Fisher, Paul Arnold, Eric M. Massicotte, Stephen Lewis, Raja Rampersaud

Department of Neurosurgery Faculty Papers

Background: There is convincing preclinical evidence that early decompression in the setting of spinal cord injury (SCI) improves neurologic outcomes. However, the effect of early surgical decompression in patients with acute SCI remains uncertain. Our objective was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of early (,24 hours after injury) versus late ($24 hours after injury) decompressive surgery after traumatic cervical SCI.

Methods: We performed a multicenter, international, prospective cohort study (Surgical Timing in Acute Spinal Cord Injury Study: STASCIS) in adults aged 16–80 with cervical SCI. Enrolment occurred between 2002 and 2009 at 6 North American centers. The primary outcome was …

Neuroscience Of Personality: Principles Of The Psyche As A Living System, Dario Nardi

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

The brain is a complex living system. Using colorful slides and anecdotes, Dario Nardi, PhD will overview his hands-on research of the past 5 years in his social neuroscience lab using EEG technology to better understand the neocortex. He spends 2 to 3 hours with each subject, offering a variety of tasks from solo activities like meditating, drawing, and recalling to social activities like poker and speed-dating. The results are in. The neocortex relies upon a dynamic of modules, circuits, and holistic modes to continuously coordinate with the environment in both a top-down and a bottom-up manner. Moreover, individual differences …

Utilization Of Ct Scans And Mris In An Insured Population With Migraine, Neil I. Goldfarb, Valerie Pracilio, Mph, Daisy Ng-Mak, Phd, Joe Couto, Pharmd, Mba, Cary Sennett, Md, Phd, Mary Hopkins, Rn, Jon Bumbaugh, Stephen Silberstein, Md

College of Population Health Lectures, Presentations, Workshops

Background:

• Neuroimaging is a diagnostic tool that may be used to rule out a serious condition when a patient presents with head pain. It is not typically warranted for patients who have a normal neurologic exam, and may be over utilized despite established practice parameters set by the American Academy of Neurology.

•A decision to use neuroimaging should consider the type of headache and presence of any clinical features that suggest a serious condition.

Over-utilization of neuroimaging has cost and safety implications.

The United States Headache Consortium, a panel of experts on migraine, set the guidelines for diagnosis and …

Association Between Triptanuse And Cardiac Contraindications In An Insured Migraine Population, Daisy Ng-Mak, Phd, Valerie P. Pracilio, Mph, Stephen Silberstein, Md, Joseph Couto, Pharmd, Mba, Cary Sennett, Md, Phd, Mary Hopkins, Rn, Jon Bumbaugh, Neil I. Goldfarb

College of Population Health Lectures, Presentations, Workshops

Background

Safety concerns exist when using triptansto treat patients with cardiac contraindications.

–Triptans cause vasoconstriction, a safety concern for migraineurswith cardiovascular (CV) disease or other cardiac risk factors.

–All triptans contain contraindications in their package inserts to avoid use in patients with cardiac conditions.

•Previous research indicates that clinicians are less likely to prescribe triptansin patients with CV disease or CV risk factors.

Limited research has examined the proportion of migraine patients with cardiovascular disease or those individuals who were concurrently treated with triptans.

Surgical Outcome In Pet-Positive, Mri-Negative Patients With Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Carla Lopinto-Khoury, Michael R. Sperling, Christopher Skidmore, Maromi Nei, James Evans, Ashwini Sharan, Scott Mintzer

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

PURPOSE:

Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission computed tomography (FDG-PET) hypometabolism is important for surgical planning in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), but its significance remains unclear in patients who do not have evidence of mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We examined surgical outcomes in a group of PET-positive, MRI-negative patients and compared them with those of patients with MTS.

METHODS:

We queried the Thomas Jefferson University Surgical Epilepsy Database for patients who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL) from 1991 to 2009 and who had unilateral temporal PET hypometabolism without an epileptogenic lesion on MRI (PET+/MRI-). We compared …

Functional, Cognitive And Psychological Outcomes, And Recurrent Vascular Events In Pakistani Stroke Survivors: A Cross Sectional Study., Maria Khan, Bilal Ahmed, Maryam Ahmed, Myda Najeeb, Emmon Raza, Farid Khan, Anoosh Moin, Dania Shujaat, Ahmed Arshad, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Department of Medicine

Background: There is little direct data describing the outcomes and recurrent vascular morbidity and mortality of stroke survivors from low and middle income countries like Pakistan. This study describes functional, cognitive and vascular morbidity and mortality of Pakistani stroke survivors discharged from a dedicated stroke center within a nonprofit tertiary care hospital based in a multiethnic city with a population of more than 20 million.

Methods: Patients with stroke, aged > 18 years, discharged alive from a tertiary care centre were contacted via telephone and a cross sectional study was conducted. All the discharges were contacted. Patients or their legal surrogate …

My Patient Has An Elevated Hs-Crp. What Does This Mean? What Should I Do Now?, Maria Khan, Emmon Raza, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Department of Medicine

No abstract provided.

My Patient Has An Elevated Hs-Crp. What Does This Mean? What Should I Do Now, Maria Khan, Emmon Raza, Ayeesha Kamran Kamal

Section of Neurology

No abstract provided.