An analysis of 1274 patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) admitted to a single Colorado medical center over a 2-year period found that application of any acute stroke treatment strategy improved the patients’ NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score.

Alzheimer disease (AD) is more than twice as likely to develop in elderly persons with orthostatic hypotension (OH) as in those without OH, according to a new study presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

The total direct and indirect costs for treating patients with chronic migraines (CM) are 2.6 times higher than costs associated with episodic migraine (EM). Containing those costs through better management of the illness should be a priority, according to migraine researchers who led a nationwide study comparing the costs of CM and EM as part of the American Migraine Prevalence and Prevention (AMPP) Study.

The addition of methylprednisolone to interferon ß (IFN-ß) therapy may reduce disease activity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) to a greater degree than treatment with IFN-ß alone. “These results indicate that these 2 drugs may have a synergy when taken together and provide a more beneficial effect on the disease activity,” said study author Mads Ravnborg, MD, of the Danish Multiple Sclerosis Research Center at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.

Losing weight can significantly reduce intracranial pressure and the complications it causes, including headache and optic nerve anomalies.

New treatment options for pain caused by diabetic peripheral neuropathy were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. While oral medications from 2 different drug classes appear effective, injection of botulinum toxin does not.

Elderly persons with essential tremor (ET) are almost twice as likely to have dementia as those without ET, according to a new study from Elan Louis, MD, professor of neurology, and colleagues at Columbia University in New York.

Thirteen years have passed since intravenous tissue plasminogen activator was approved for treating patients with acute ischemic stroke, but some experts think hospitals-even those designated as primary stroke centers-have been slow to implement the strategy.

Multiple sclerosis patients treated with natalizumab risk reactivation of latent herpes virus infections.

On the hundredth day of the new administration, the President’s campaign promise of health care reform looks less like a gamble and more like a sure bet. But are policymakers throwing down the deed to the ranch?

Sleep disorders are common in persons older than 70 years, according to a large community-based study of age-related diseases and cognitive functioning. The most common disorder, sleep-related leg cramps, occurred in 32% of the study participants, according to investigator Jennifer Molano, MD, a behavioral neurology fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Valproate should be avoided in women with epilepsy who are pregnant, according to new guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society.

In the Unites States, Parkinson disease is more common in white men than in persons in other ethnic groups, and most patients with the disease live in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, according to the results of an epidemiological study.

Researchers have identified 2 gene variations that are resistant to interferon ß therapy. This finding could lead to a biomarker for determining when IFN-ß is appropriate for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Prevalence of migraine is higher in men and women who have total body obesity (TBO) or abdominal obesity (Abd-O), according to the results of a study by Lee B. Peterlin, DO, assistant professor in the Department of Neurology, and colleagues at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Not only can your practice become a patient-centered medical home, or PCMH -- but would you want it to? And if the answer to both these questions is "yes," how do you go about making the transition?

Several poster presentations this week confirm that hyperglycemia is a risk factor for poor outcomes in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).

Like great newspapers, medical journals play a crucial role in our society-and in the midst of the protracted transition from print to web publishing, they need our support. This was the message of the keynote address presented by Harold C. Sox, MD, at the 2009 meeting of the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia.

Every year, Dr Ronald N. Rubin, professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine, presents review courses for specialty board exams at the American College of Physicians annual meeting.