Matt Hoffman

Although the biomarker was associated with disease activity, its prognostic value on the individual patient level is still limited per these 10-year data of more than 600 patients with multiple sclerosis.

The director of the University of Southern Florida’s Parkinson's and Movement Disorders Center shared insight into the current focus on the nonmotor aspects of Parkinson care and the findings of a survey of patients and caregivers.

The early career fellow in the Center for Health Equity at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne offered insight into the critical need for research and efforts to increase smoking cessation in those with multiple sclerosis.

The neurologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shared insight into the PKG’s use and what the wearable monitoring device can provide to physicians who treat patients with Parkinson disease.

Initial data from a feasibility study conducted with Apple devices and digital apps has shown the potential for these to be able to differentiate people with mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer disease dementia.

Exposure to the care of either a neurologist or comprehensive epilepsy program epileptologist resulted in a significantly lower rate of premature mortality than that of those who were not, based on findings from a cohort of more than 20,000 cases.

New study findings confirm that idiopathic rapid‐eye‐movements sleep behavior disorder and RBD secondary to narcolepsy type 1 can be identified via video‐polysomnography and skin biopsy for phosphorylated α‐synuclein deposits.

The Rare Disease Cures Accelerator-Data and Analytics Platform, aimed at accelerating the development of new therapies, will launch at a joint meeting between the Critical Path Institute and the National Organization for Rare Disorders on Tuesday, September 17 in Bethesda, Maryland.

The director of multiple sclerosis neuropsychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital discussed how a collaborative approach can help to address mental health disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis.

The director of headache medicine and chief of general neurology at Yale Medicine spoke about the significance of having CGRP inhibitors in the armamentarium, and how therapies like eptinezumab can improve patients’ belief in their physician’s ability to help.

The professor of neurology at University Medical Center Schleswig‐Holstein, and member of the department of neurodegenerative diseases at University Hospital Tübingen shared insight into the quantitative gait characteristics measured by wearable devices which can play an important role in the identification of prodromal Parkinson disease and its progression.

The findings demonstrated that the galcanezumab group—made up of those with both chronic and episodic migraine—experienced a 4.1-day reduction in monthly migraine headache days compared to a 1.0-day reduction with placebo.

The staff neurologist at Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for MS shared her insight into the use of telemedicine in an outpatient setting across a number of subspecialties in neurology and how it can supplement care going forward.

The director of the Pediatric Stroke Program at CHOP spoke about the need to improve early recognition of pediatric stroke and physician awareness of the condition, which many believe is underdiagnosed and underestimated.

The professor of neurology and founding chair of the John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics at the University of Miami discussed the distinctions between Alzheimer disease risk of ethnicities that share genetic markers.

Patients who received diroximel fumarate experienced statistically significantly fewer number of days of key gastrointestinal symptoms with intensity scores ≥2 on the IGISIS compared to those on dimethyl fumarate.

One year post-launch, the Ambry Genetics and Akcea Therapeutics hereditary ATTR amyloidosis testing program has been used by more than 700 physicians. The free test screens for up to 81 genes that cause hereditary polyneuropathies and up to 92 genes associated with hereditary cardiomyopathies, including hATTR amyloidosis.

At usual-speed walking, a number of domains of gait variability, pace, asymmetry, and postural control were significantly predictive of conversion to Parkinson disease, and could be used in combination with markers to identify prodromal disease and its progression.

Investigators found reductions in tic frequency and increases in the number of tic-free intervals when children were merely asked verbally to suppress their tics, and when an immediate and contingent reward was delivered for successful tic suppression, tic suppression was enhanced.

The use of single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation, while already FDA-approved for acute and preventive migraine treatment, has shown that it can be effective in reducing the need for acute headache medications in patients with migraine.

Zogenix has announced that its Study 1601 of fenfluramine (Fintepla), also known as ZX008, in the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome has completed enrollment and is on schedule to report top-line data in Q1 2020.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham neuromodulation epilepsy clinic has treated 43 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy, reducing seizures by >60% for a number of patients with both vagus nerve stimulation and responsive neurostimulation techniques.

The PKG wearable was able to more effectively and objectively assess motor fluctuations in patients with Parkinson disease than standard patient-reported motor diaries.

Though no details have been reported, Janssen Pharmaceuticals announced that its S1P modulator ponesimod has met its primary and key secondary end points in the OPTIMUM study, in which it was compared to teriflunomide in patients with relapsing MS.

The investigators noted that these data provide robust and promising evidence that eptinezumab is associated with a rapid preventive effect in chronic migraine that is sustained for 3 months after a single infusion.

Despite previous case series suggesting that undergoing surgery may increase the risk of multiple sclerosis relapse, retrospective analysis of more than 600 surgeries undergone by patients with progressive and relapsing MS now proposes that the risk of relapse is not high in the postoperative period.

The PRIAMO study data showed that men with Parkinson disease who had been sexually active in the past 12 months were more likely to have lower motor disability, better quality of life, and lower depression scores. No similar associations were observed for women.

The phase 2b trial of the repository corticotropin injection (Acthar Gel) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis was halted due to data and safety board concerns of the potential risk of pneumonia.

The Accordion Pill C/L did show success in treating the symptoms of Parkinson, despite the lack of significant differences. Although it also failed to achieve superiority in secondary end points.

The associate director of the Institute for Clinical & Translational Science at the University of California, Irvine, spoke about the findings of the study and how it can inform the use of telemedicine.