VBCN - April 2014 Volume 1, No 1

Patients with stroke often require extensive inpatient and outpatient care that is associated with high expenditures and very high morbidity and mortality rates. Neuroimaging is an important component of care in patients with acute ischemic stroke, especially for guiding the use of thrombolysis. Imaging is associated with high costs and is being used more often today.

Plasma free fatty acids (FFAs) are related to lipid metabolism, and elevated levels of FFA have been associated with risk factors for atherosclerosis, such as abdominal obesity, arterial hypertension, and insulin resistance.

Lifestyle physical activity should be as central to the health-promoting habits of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) as exercise training, according to one expert.

A recent Spanish economic analysis indicates that glatiramer acetate injection (Copaxone) is cost-effective for the prevention of relapses in patients with established relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), according to recently published results.

Blinding of patients to their assigned treatment (active or placebo) is a standard procedure in clinical trials to assess the “true” efficacy of the active drug. But what happens when patients are certain whether they are receiving active treatment or placebo?

The varied genetic causes of progressive myoclonic epilepsies (PMEs) are becoming better understood through genetic analyses. A team of Italian researchers recently contributed to the understanding of these rare diseases by defining the clinical spectrum and etiology of PMEs, using a database developed by the Genetics Commission of the Italian League against Epilepsy.

Men with N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antibodies (NMDAr-Abs) encephalitis present different from women, according to a recent study. Adult men are more likely to present with seizures, whereas women rarely present with seizures and are much more likely to present with behavioral and psychiatric features as their first symptom. Males and females have a similar course of global progression and similar recovery.

Migraine prevalence increased significantly as household income declined in a retrospective analysis of a large migraine database, supporting a social-causation hypothesis in the etiology of migraine, investigators reported recently.

A team of neurologists have proposed a new algorithm to help clinicians determine which patients with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) may be suitable for first-line treatment with natalizumab.