Advances in neuroimaging, neurophysiology, molecular biology, and genetics have given us the opportunity to examine the nervous system in ways that were previously unimaginable. This has led to greater insight into the nature of neurological disease, enhanced diagnostic capacities, and provided new opportunities for our patients. This has also, however, led to a vast amount of information spanning multiple disciplines that can prove very difficult for the neurologist to digest and incorporate in practical clinical terms.
Advances in neuroimaging, neurophysiology, molecular biology, and genetics have given us the opportunity to examine the nervous system in ways that were previously unimaginable. This has led to greater insight into the nature of neurological disease, enhanced diagnostic capacities, and provided new opportunities for our patients. This has also, however, led to a vast amount of information spanning multiple disciplines that can prove very difficult for the neurologist to digest and incorporate in practical clinical terms.
US Neurology has been designed to provide the reader with periodic reviews and updates in key areas. These articles, written by experts in their respective fields, bring together the latest clinical and scientific information in a format that provides general neurologists with a quick but comprehensive review of the field. Extensive referencing also allows readers to go directly to the primary articles in areas of their particular interest for further information.
This issue presents notable contributions from leading figures from institutes throughout North America, including the University of California, San Francisco, Miami Institute for Human Genomics, Harvard Medical School, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Susan Chang, MD, assesses the impact of the North American Brain Tumor Consortium, one of three multi-institutional consortia funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to evaluate novel treatments in adults with central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Brain tumors also receive attention from Rintaro Hashizume, MD, PhD, and William H Frey II, MD, who present a new therapeutic approach to brain tumors in the form of intranasal delivery, a method with much promise for bypassing the blood–brain barrier (BBB) while eliminating surgical risk and the spill-over effect of drugs into normal tissue.
Stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage receive significant attention. Mathew J Reeves, PhD, et al. assess some of the challenges associated with transient ischemic attack (TIA) in the acute setting, while Hans-Christoph Diener, MD, outlines recent developments in secondary stroke prevention. In the ‘Cognitive Aging’ section, contributions include ‘Emerging Therapies for Alzheimer’s Disease’ by Samuel E Gandy, MD, PhD, and Corbett Schimming, MD, and ‘Applicability and Benefit of Enteral Levodopa/Carbidopa Infusion in Advanced Parkinson’s Disease’ by Francesc Valldeoriola, MD, PhD. Neuropathic pain also receives timely coverage, with Ru-Rong Ji, MD, PhD, et al. showing that nerve-injury-induced neuropathic pain development requires matrix metalloprotease-9 and -2 (MMP-9 and MMP-2) in the early and late phase, respectively.
These articles, and the many others of which space forbids mention, are not intended to provide a comprehensive overview of any one of these fields, but rather to focus on individual areas of new research that might be of interest to the general neurologist and, ultimately, might influence their practice. As new information in the different neurology disciplines becomes available, we anticipate that overviews of these areas will continue to be provided. In this way, we hope that US Neurology will prove to be of value for busy practioners. â–
