US NEUROLOGY – VOLUME 12 ISSUE 1 – SPRING 2016

Welcome to the latest edition of US Neurology, which features a wide range of topical articles covering numerous areas of neurology that are of interest to the wider biomedical community. In this edition, we discuss treatment of Duchene Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), differential diagnosis of multifocal motor neuropathy, issues of care in multiple sclerosis and other […]

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked disorder affecting one in 5,000 live male births which makes it the most common and most severe form of muscular dystrophy.1 The absence of the protein dystrophin leads to symptom onset typically between the ages of two to five years, with abnormal gait and frequent falls being hallmark […]

Myelopathy is a common diagnosis often made by clinical neurologists and can be a cause of significant disability. Differential diagnosis classically includes structural etiology, demyelinating, metabolic, nutritional, inherited, and degenerative causes, resulting in a vast array of pathophysiologic processes, underlying myelopathy (Table 1). It is critical that clinicians use their clinical knowledge and utilize appropriate […]

In my avocation as a home cook, I found interesting a passage in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Shark’s Fins and Sichuan Pepper, a memoir of the author’s culinary journey in China.1 She describes an elderly gourmet’s lament for the rising dominance of culinary school education over traditional chefs’ apprenticeships. He was dismayed by the substitution of mass-produced […]

Of the 400,000 adults living with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the US, an estimated 30% are between the age of 55–64 years and nearly 15% are 65 years of age or older.1 There is additional evidence of a shift in the peak prevalence of MS among older age groups. For example, the peak prevalence of […]

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a lifelong neurologic disease affecting the central nervous system and resulting in demyelination and axonal loss over time. Symptoms are widely variable and often involve motor and sensory impairment, vision loss, gait disturbance, cognitive dysfunction, and fatigue. Furthermore, MS is a disease common to women of childbearing age, with 70% of […]

Population based studies show that primary headaches, such as migraine, are very common disorders.1 Similar accounts to vertigo and dizziness, which are are also symptoms frequently complained of.2 A significant proportion of patients report suffering these symptoms (headache, dizziness and/or vertigo) simultaneously and independently of each other. This especially accounts for migraine since up to […]

Neurocognitive function is commonly compromised in cancer patients. While symptoms can be caused by the tumor itself and are commonly seen in patients with brain tumors, the etiology of neurocognitive deficits is much more complex in patients treated for tumors outside the nervous system. Impaired cognition can be present in cancer patients prior to treatment; […]

There is increasing evidence that vitamin D status is associated with both the development of multiple sclerosis (MS) and also the modulation of disease activity and possibly progression. Several publications have reported that the risk of MS is higher in patients with low vitamin D intake or serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels, for example due […]

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for bone homeostasis that has also been implicated in numerous other disorders, such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and autoimmune diseases. Originally vitamin D deficiency was associated only with rickets and it was considered that the fortification of food resolved this disorder. However, it is now realised that rickets represents […]

Selective attention is defined as the preferential allocation of cognitive and neural resources to a specific event that has become behaviourally relevant.1 Attention is a prerequisite to all cognitive tasks and learning. It involves many brain structures grouped into the so-called attentional matrix. Migraine is frequent and occurs in as high as a quarter of […]