News

This February, members of the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to 10 new research articles in peer-reviewed journals. At the microscopic level, new studies examined how ion channels in endothelial cells may contribute to hypertension associated with obesity, and reviewed how DNA damage contributes to neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease. And at the system-wide level, our Stroke team discussed the massive IMPROVE Stroke Care project, which includes a network of nearly 100 hospitals, and hundreds of other agencies and communities.

The AHA/ASA's top award for all three of our hospitals, as well as more than a dozen new lectures, abstracts, and presentations are just some highlights to come from Duke at the 2020 International Stroke Conference in Los Angeles this week.

Taewon Kim, PhD, first became interested in the neurosciences while playing high school baseball, when he began wondering how his brain retained the motor skills he picked up during hours of practice. Now, as a postdoctoral associate within the laboratory of Wayne Feng, MD, MD he’s helping to investigate how to help patients keep and build on those same motor skills after they’ve had a stroke. In this week’s “spotlight” interview, Kim talks to us about his graduate studies, his work at Duke, and his plans to continue academic research in the future.

Faculty from the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to seven new peer-reviewed journal articles in January 2020. A team including Simon Davis, PhD, helped to answer questions about how the brain forms and stores memory. Christa Swisher, MD, Christian Hernandez, MD, and colleagues evaluated a promising new tool that offers improved in-patient seizure detection.

Faculty from the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to seven new peer-reviewed journal articles in January 2020. A team including Simon Davis, PhD, helped to answer questions about how the brain forms and stores memory. Christa Swisher, MD, Christian Hernandez, MD, and colleagues evaluated a promising new tool that offers improved in-patient seizure detection.

New research indicates intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator (IV tPA) only increases the risk for brain hemorrhage in patients with previous stroke if the prior occurred within the past two weeks. This retrospective observational study, by Shreyansh Shah, MD, (photo), Ying Xian, MD, PhD, and colleagues, appears in Circulation Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Members of the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to nine studies in peer-reviewed journals published in December 2019. In the fields of neurodegeneration and neuromuscular disease, our faculty found potential new avenues for therapies for spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) and myasthenia gravis. Other studies by our faculty and housestaff answered important questions about how reductions in blood pressure affect outcomes for thrombectomy, outcomes for deep brain stimulation for patients with Parkinson’s, and other areas.

Our third entry in our “Neurology and Men’s Health” series focuses on the leading neurological killer of men and women alike--stroke. Every year, more than 55,000 men die from stroke, and thousands of others experience permanent disability. In this interview Stroke Fellow Aaron Loochtan, DO, discusses stroke’s impact on men, including its among younger men, how men and women can reduce their risk of stroke while improving their health, and how recognizing a stroke quickly can save nearly 2 million brain cells a minute.

For women, stroke is both more dangerous and more complicated than it is for men. Women are at greater risk than men for having and dying from a stroke. Being a woman also brings unique health concerns, such as risk spiking during certain life events, and having to balance questions about risk with quality of life and family planning concerns. In the fourth entry in our Neurology and Women’s Health series, Jodi Dodds, MD, talks about these issues and what women can do about them.