Infectious diseases of the nervous system are an evolving and extremely interesting area of neurology. There always seems to be a new infection on the horizon and this means that neurologists constantly need to stay up-to-date on how these infections present clinically. Importantly, many are treatable and this means that you have to be on […]
Latest articles
The obesity-stroke paradox: why do obese patients have milder strokes?
Over the weekend, the Sydney Morning Herald wrote of the ‘heavy cost’ of obesity to the Australian health system http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-heavy-cost-of-obesity-and-how-nsw-health-workers-are-responding-20150613-ghmxbu.html . The article featured a quote that “the new normal is to be overweight or obese”. The epidemic of obesity has presented major health challenges that are not just faced by the developed world but […]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: from Charcot to cutting edge molecular genetics
For most clinicians, having to tell a patient that they have motor neuron disease/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a difficult and challenging dilemma. In the community, it is one of the few remaining conditions that are inseparably linked with severe physical disability resulting in loss of independence and eventually loss of life. On a more […]
Peptic ulcers, Nobel Prizes and Multiple Sclerosis
It has been a decade now since Barry Marshall and Robin Warren from the University of Western Australia (UWA) were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering the link between Helicobacter Pylori (H.pylori) and the development of peptic ulcers. Famously, their discovery involved Marshall ingesting the bacteria himself in order to prove his hypothesis. […]
Decision-making and multiple sclerosis: there is hope!
One of the most common concerns that I hear as a clinician from MS patients concerns their ability to organise and look after their lives. MS patients who have even the most mild degrees of physical disability report an alarmingly significant effect of the illness of their ability to multi-task and to just get things […]
Medication-overuse headache: finally, we have an intervention that works.
Headache. Common, painful, frustrating, exhausting- and that’s just what the neurologist feels when a headache patient walks in the room. The patients themselves are often at their wits end as headache, whatever the cause, is often functional incapacitating and can really ruin quality of life. Of all the headache types that are seen in neurology, […]
Temozolomide reduces risk of seizures in low grade glioma!
Low grade gliomas are associated with a higher frequency of seizures. While antieplipetic medications are utilized to reduced seizure frequency, in this issue of JNNP temozolomide was also associated with a a significant reduction in seizure frequency. Perhaps temozolomide should be added to therapy of LGGs with intractable seizures. Read more at http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/86/4/366.abstract […]
Spinal cord injury in multiple sclerosis: why is this important for MS clinical trials?
For patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), sustained long-term disability is a problem that elicits considerable concern. There is the impact on independence and the potential burden that it may lead to for caregivers. While treatments for MS seem to multiply by the year, established disability remains the one area that is still refractory to treatment. […]
Confused about encephalopathy? Here’s something that may help.
Confusion. Agitation. Irritability. A wander around any emergency department or neurology ward will yield an abundance of observations that can fall under these categories and yet these are not all due to long waiting times or general hospital mayhem. All these symptoms are common presentations of neurological dysfunction and they are features of that syndrome […]
Spinal cord injury: another step forward.
Around the world, spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common and devastating long-term complication of trauma that can result in lifelong disability or even death. There are frequent media reports of treatments that may help patients with SCI walk again and these range from new drugs, to robotic devices to new developments in stem cell […]