Welcome graphic

Originally established to list my teaching resources for Neurology at  Dartmouth Medical School,  this site provides numerous links to neurology, neuroscience, and other medically related topics.  Recently I have added more content in the form of news feeds. Other improvements are underway.

Let me also make the disclaimer that these are just references to information.  Do not  rely on what you find here to treat yourself or anyone else. Physicians and other health care providers must use their own judgement and multiple inputs from many sources to reach decisions. Information found here is not diagnostic or treatment advice from me or from this web site. If you have any suggestions or comments, you may leave them in the Guestbook.

Thank you.

Neuro Blog

Monday, February 8, 2010

New Drug for Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

A new medication, dalfampridine (sold under the name Ampyra) has been approved by the FDA for multiple sclerosis. The new medication does not cure MS or even block the MS attacks. But it reportedly helps patients with MS to walk faster (and presumably better).

How does it do this? Dalfampridine is a potassium channel blocker. In the process of nerve conduction, the potassium channel opens at a certain point to shut off the action potential. Blocking the channel a bit allows the potential to last a little longer and this helps the impulse to propagate through areas of damaged myelin.

For many years this drug as been known under another name, 4-aminopyridine (4-AP).  Previously it had been believed that  4-AP was too toxic to use clinically. But Biogen seems to have reduced the toxicity by using a time released formulation.  Thus it was approved by the FDA. The list of possible side effects is long, however, and includes such nasty items as seizures and relapses of MS itself. So this is not something to be taken lightly. But as clinical experience accumulates, Ampyra may take its place as another tool in the MS treatment toolbox.  By the way, if you look this up you may encounter the name fampridine rather than dalfampridine.  They are the same drug. Fampridine=dalfampridine=4-aminopyridine=4-AP.  They are all names for the same chemical.

8:32 pm est

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The Neurology Exam Made Simple
A reader suggested another great site: The Neurology Exam....Made Simple at http://www.neurologyexam.com/index.html

It has videos on the neurological exam as well as additional pages containing other neurological information. I have added it to the "Blog Roll" (I guess it's not technically a blog, but who knows the boundaries of what you can call a blog). I am also going to add it to the general neurology section.
8:47 pm est

Friday, January 29, 2010

At Last---Some Good News About Aging
I had long hoped that there might be some good news about getting older. A study described in Medicne World at
http://medicineworld.org/stories/lead/1-2010/older-brains-make-good-use-of-useless-information.html
shows that what might be thought of as a defect in the functioning of older brains, loss of the ability to filter out seemingly irrelevant information, appears to have an upside. The older learners  bond items that younger brains do not and this may give them additional ability in making decisions. Perhaps this is one of the sources of wisdom, an attribute traditionally associated with age and experience. But, in a sense, this is like what is sometimes said of software, i.e. "it's not a bug, it's a feature." At least on the surface,  this idea seems to make sense.
1:32 pm est

Monday, October 12, 2009

Doctors In Politics
In addition to physician friends who are authors of popular (or soon to be popular) books, one of my fellow doctors has thrown her hat (or maybe her surgical mask) into the ring in Texas. Susan Dodds Curling is an anesthesiologist whom I got to know when I attended the Physician Executive MBA Program at the University of Tennessee just a year ago. We both graduated in December of 2008. I don't live in Texas but if I were in her district, I would vote for her. She's highly intelligent, very energetic, and thoughtful. I think she would pursue an agenda that would promote many good things for everyone, not just for physicians. Here is her Facebook campaign page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texans-for-Dr-Susan-Curling/138477731657?v=info

If you live in her district, I think you should consider supporting her.
6:47 pm est

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A New Look
Though I liked the colors that I previously had on the web page, the prior template did not use space very efficiently. It had a really wide margin at the right. I was not able to adjust the right margin. So I started with a simpler template. I think it is better because it uses most of the width of the screen. I hope you like it.
8:51 pm est

2010.02.01
2010.01.01
2009.10.01
2009.09.01
2009.08.01
2009.06.01
2009.05.01
2009.04.01

Link to web log's RSS file

from the journal,  Neurology

Free Classifieds by WebLeeg

eBay Sniper


Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious

Custom Search

  

Blog Roll

  

 
 
 
 
Headlines From Nature Neuroscience