It's tricky: Rating alleviating maneuvers in cervical dystonia.

Objectives: To investigate hypothesized sources of error when quantifying the effect of the sensory trick in cervical dystonia (CD) with the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale (TWSTRS-2), test strategies to mitigate them, and provide guidance for future research on the sensory trick.

Methods: Previous analyses suggested the sensory trick (or "alleviating maneuver", AM) item be removed from the TWSTRS-2 because of its poor clinimetric properties. We hypothesized three sources of clinimetric weakness for rating the AM: 1) whether patients were given sufficient time to demonstrate their AM; 2) whether patients' CD was sufficiently severe for detecting AM efficacy; and 3) whether raters were inadvertently rating the item in reverse of scale instructions.

Reducing neurodisparity: Recommendations of the 2017 AAN Diversity Leadership Program.

Many advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of neurologic disease have emerged in the last few decades, resulting in reduced mortality and decreased disability. However, these advances have not benefitted all populations equally. A growing body of evidence indicates that barriers to care fall along racial and ethnic lines, with persons from minority groups frequently having lower rates of evaluation, diagnosis, and intervention, and consequently experiencing worse neurologic outcomes than their white counterparts.

Clinical and genetic features of cervical dystonia in a large multicenter cohort.

Objective: To characterize the clinical and genetic features of cervical dystonia (CD).

Methods: Participants enrolled in the Dystonia Coalition biorepository (NCT01373424) with initial manifestation as CD were included in this study (n = 1,000). Data intake included demographics, family history, and the Global Dystonia Rating Scale.

Impaired financial abilities in Parkinson's disease patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

Purpose: Financial capacity (FC) is an instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) critical to independent functioning and sensitive to cognitive impairment in dementia. Little is known about FC in cognitively impaired patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study investigated FC in PD patients with prodromal and clinical dementia.

The contribution of executive control on verbal-learning impairment in patients with Parkinson's disease with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Deficits in learning, memory, and executive functions are common cognitive sequelae of Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, the pattern of deficits within these populations is distinct. Hierarchical regression was used to investigate the contribution of two measures with executive function properties (Verbal Fluency and CLOX) on list-learning performance (CVLT-II total words learned) in a sample of 25 PDD patients and 25 matched AD patients. Executive measures were predictive of list learning in the PDD group after the contribution of overall cognition and contextual verbal learning was accounted for, whereas in the AD group the addition of executive measures did not add to prediction of variance in CVLT-II learning.

Weight changes associated with unilateral STN DBS and advanced PD.

Weight gain following bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN DBS) in Parkinson disease (PD) has been characterized previously, but little is known about changes in weight following unilateral STN DBS. Weight gain of approximately 10 kg at one year after bilateral STN DBS for PD has been noted in previous studies, and PD in the absence of DBS has been associated with weight loss. A case-control comparison evaluated the change in weight following unilateral STN DBS in PD.

Spheramine for treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Spheramine (Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Berlin, Germany) is currently being tested as a new approach for the treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD). It consists of an active component of cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells, attached to an excipient part of cross-linked porcine gelatin microcarrriers. Spheramine is administered by stereotactic implantation into the striatum of PD patients and the use of immunosuppression is not required.

Intrastriatal implantation of human retinal pigment epithelial cells attached to microcarriers in advanced Parkinson disease.

Background: Human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells produce levodopa and can be isolated from postmortem human eye tissue, grown in culture, and implanted into the brain attached to microcarriers. These implants ameliorated the motor deficits in rodent and nonhuman primate models of Parkinson disease.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of unilateral implantation of human RPE cells attached to gelatin microcarriers into the putamen contralateral to the more symptomatic side of patients with Parkinson disease.

Stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in a patient with Parkinson disease and essential tremor.

Background: The preferred surgical target for the treatment of Parkinson disease (PD) is either the internal globus pallidus or the subthalamic nucleus (STN); the target for treatment of essential tremor (ET) is the thalamic subnucleus ventralis intermedius (Vim). Some patients with PD have coexistent ET, and the identification of a single surgical target to treat both parkinsonian motor symptoms and ET would be of practical importance.

Objective: To describe the use of the STN target in deep brain stimulator (DBS) surgery to treat PD motor symptoms and the action-postural tremor of ET.

Implantation of Spheramine in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD).

Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of unilateral stereotactic implantation of cultured human retinal pigment epithelial (hRPE) cells attached to microcarriers (Spheramine) in patients with advanced PD in an open label pilot study. Six patients with advanced PD (3 males; 3 females; mean age 52.2 years; mean duration of PD 10.