Cover Article
Can Bone Marrow Transplants “Reboot” an Immune System Ravaged by Autoimmune Disease?
A Few reports of cancer patients who had bone marrow transplants and experienced striking improvements in coincidental autoimmune disease prompted researchers to investigate whether it is possible to use bone marrow transplants to stimulate an entirely new immune system in patients with refractory neurologic autoimmune diseases.

Selected Articles

• Neural Stem Cells Target Brain Tumors
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Redesigning Epilepsy Clinical Trials—Circumventing the Ethics of Placebo Control
• Predicting Factors of Recovery From an Initial Demyelinating Event
• PARK6-Linked Autosomal Recessive Early-Onset Parkinson's Disease—And Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
Is Neuroprotection a Viable Goal in Treating MS?
Undaunted by the failures of neuroprotective trials in stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases, Dennis Bourdette, MD, and colleagues theorize that the pathogenesis of MS may involve both inflammation and neurodegeneration and that neuroprotection could play a key role in the effort to halt progression of the disease.

Selected Articles

• Is it Time for a Unified Theory of Parkinson’s Disease?
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• New Therapies Blur the Line Between Treating the Sick and Aiding the Healthy
• Can Treating Cardiac Risk Factors Help Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?
• ACE Inhibitors for Cognitive Decline?—And Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
A Broken Brain—The Axonal Transport Failure Model of Alzheimer’s Disease
At the Ninth International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, John Q. Trojanowski, MD, discussed an emerging theoretical approach to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders that links the onset and progression of brain degeneration mechanistically to abnormal interactions between brain proteins.

Selected Articles

• Objective Markers of ALS?
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Aspirin Fails Almost Half of Stroke/TIA Patients
• Resistance Training for Neuropathy
• Wait-and-See Approach for MS—And Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
Modifiable Risk Factors for Alzheimer’s Disease
The risk of dementia is estimated to be about one third genetic and two thirds nongenetic, so lifestyle choices are important factors in moderating risk. At the Ninth International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, Dr. Gary Small discussed a 14-day memory and lifestyle training program designed to “keep your brain and body young.”

Selected Articles

• Treating MS Based on Disability Progression
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Neuroplasticity in Multiple Sclerosis
• Is Diabetes a Risk Factor for Parkinsonian Syndrome?
• An Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategy—And Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
Sex Hormones in the Male Brain: Is There an Effect on Cognition?
Thirty-five year follow-up of a cohort of adult male twins originally enrolled in a 1969 study of cardiovascular disease risk factors is yielding valuable insights into the relationship of sex hormones to brain structure and cognition in aging males.

Selected Articles

• Vitamin B6 Levels Correlate With Vascular Lesions
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Gluten Sensitivity Is Prevalent in Patients With Peripheral Neuropathy
• Is Welding a Risk Factor for Parkinson's Disease?
• Blood Pressure Decline May Accelerate Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease—And Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
West Nile Virus, Lyme Disease Predicted to Reach Record Levels
Experts expect the southwestward spread of West Nile virus to continue this summer, with outbreaks possible in California. Florida too was cited as an area of concern. The virus is expected to also reemerge in regions where it has been present, but not in epidemic proportions, as it was last summer. Prevention remains the best strategy. To that end, the CDC and others recommend DEET-based insect repellents, which protect against insect- and tick-borne diseases.

Selected Articles

• Can Pesticide Exposure Cause Parkinson’s Disease?
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Optic Neuritis as a Predictor of Multiple Sclerosis—A 30-Year Follow-Up
• Guidelines Clarify Role of New Antiepileptic Drugs
• Estrogen Use Does Not Reduce Risk of Dementia in Older Women—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
A New Wrinkle in Migraine Treatment?
As serendipitous as was the finding that a spasticity treatment had cosmetic applications, so too was the discovery that a wrinkle treatment could benefit migraineurs. A recent randomized trial confirmed that botulinum toxin type A did not reduce the number of headaches that a patient developed but it did reduce headache severity.

Selected Articles

• Higher Interferon Beta Dose Improves MRI Outcomes in MS
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Alzheimer’s Drug Improves Memory and Cognition in MS Patients
• Side Effects of Newer Antiepileptic Drugs
• Statin Therapy for MS?—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
The Stress and MS Connection
Nontraumatic stressful life events, such as job difficulties or financial problems, have been implicated in an increase in MS exacerbations. Results of a meta-analysis of 14 empirical studies indicated that stress is related to MS exacerbation with a clinically meaningful weighted average effect size greater than the benefit of the principal class of disease-modifying drugs used to treat the disease.

Selected Articles

• Does Stroke Care Differ Between Urban and Rural Settings?
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms in Huntington’s Disease
• Stenting Safer Than Surgery for Stroke Prevention in High-Risk Patients With Diabetes
• Alzheimer’s Disease Associated With Reduced Life Expectancy—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
t-PA for Hemorrhagic Stroke?
According to the FDA approval of t-PA for ischemic stroke, the drug is contraindicated in hemorrhagic stroke because of the added risk of bleeding, but researchers have recently established that an ultra-low dose of the clot-busting drug plus standard therapy in patients with hemorrhagic stroke yielded a higher rate of clot reduction than in patients receiving standard therapy and placebo. Ongoing studies are attempting to establish the optimum dose for maximal benefit and minimal risk of additional bleeding.

Selected Articles

• Seizure Onset During Pregnancy—What Is the Prognosis?
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Metabolic Syndrome May Be an Important Link to Stroke
• A Possible Explanation for Nicotine’s Neuroprotective Effect
• Statins May Reduce Stroke Risk—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
Brain Cooling and Gene Therapy Merge to Open Stroke Treatment Window
Cooling the brain and gene therapy have each shown promise as acute stroke therapies, but new research suggests that the two therapies may yield even more benefit when they are combined.

Selected Articles

• Long-Term Data May Shift Views of MS Disability
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Vitamins Do Little to Prevent Recurrent Stroke
• Migraines May Pose an Increased Risk for Brain Lesions
• Genetic Test Can Detect MS Changes—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
Mad Cow in the US—What Is the Risk to Public Health?
Since the December 2003 identification in the US of a lone dairy cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, concern regarding the risk of mad cow disease in America has escalated. However, experts agree that the precautions currently in place in the domestic food industry, coupled with a high level of vigilance against the prion disease in the medical community, make the public health risk in America minimal to nonexistent.

Selected Articles

• Taking Vitamin D Supplements Lowers Risk of MS
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Elderly Patients With Epilepsy—Are They Receiving Appropriate AEDs?
• Patent Foramen Ovale Closure May Reduce Migraine Attacks
• MS-Related Disability Worsens Over 10 Years—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology

Cover Article
The Atkins Diet for Epilepsy?
The benefits of the ketogenic diet for seizure control are well established, but poor compliance and adverse effects make the diet difficult to maintain. Now there may be an alternative. “The Atkins diet can induce a ketonic state similar to the ketogenic diet and may be similarly beneficial to patients with epilepsy and perhaps more tolerable,” said researcher Eric H. Kossoff, MD, at the annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society.

Selected Articles

• Antioxidants Do Not Improve Cognition in the Elderly
• News Roundup: Late-Breaking Neurologic News
• Revised Guidelines for Medication-Overuse Headache
• MS Therapy—Narrowing the Gap Between Short-Term Answers and Long-Term Questions
• The Misdiagnosis of Spontaneous Intrancranial Hypotension—and Other Recent Articles of Interest in Neurology