Neurology in the Vietnam War.

Between December 1965 and December 1971, the United States maintained armed forces in Vietnam never less than 180,000 men and women in support of the war. At one time, this commitment exceeded half a million soldiers, sailors, and airmen from both the United States and its allies. Such forces required an extensive medical presence, including 19 neurologists.

Historical model for editor and Office of Research Integrity cooperation in handling allegations, investigation, and retraction in a contentious (Abbs) case of research misconduct.

Cooperation between a journal editor and the federal Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in addressing investigations of research misconduct, each performing their own responsibilities while keeping each other informed of events and evidence, can be critical to the professional and regulatory resolution of a case. This paper describes the history of one of ORI's most contentious investigations that involved falsification of research on Parkinson's disease patients by James Abbs, Professor of Neurology, University of Wisconsin, published in the journal Neurology, which was handled cooperatively by the authors, who were the chief ORI investigator and the Editor-in-Chief of Neurology, respectively.

Syncopal migraine.

Objective: A subgroup of syncope patients report migraine headaches immediately preceding or following syncope, and some respond to anti-migrainous prophylactic agents. This study aimed to describe the frequency of migrainous features concurrent with episodes of syncope and to propose clinical criteria for assessing whether a migrainous mechanism might underlie syncope.

Methods: This retrospective, questionnaire-based study developed criteria for syncopal migraine based on the International Classification of Headache Disorders II (ICHD-II) migraine criteria.

Susac's Syndrome--update.

Susac's Syndrome (SS) consists of the clinical triad of encephalopathy, branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO), and hearing loss (HL). It is an autoimmune endotheliopathy affecting the precapillary arterioles of the brain, retina, and inner ear (cochlea and semicircular canals). The age range extends from 7 to 72 years, but young women (20-40) are most vulnerable.

Vertigo as a symptom of migraine.

Migraine and vertigo are common disorders, affecting about 14% and 10%, respectively, of the general population. If migraine and vertigo were unrelated, the expected comorbidity would be 1%, whereas recent epidemiological studies indicate that 3.2% of the population have both migraine and vertigo.

Review of the toxicology of chlorpyrifos with an emphasis on human exposure and neurodevelopment.

This review examines the large body of toxicological and epidemiological information on human exposures to chlorpyrifos, with an emphasis on the controversial potential for chlorpyrifos to induce neurodevelopmental effects at low doses. The results of this review demonstrate that the use of urinary 3,5,6-trichlorpyridinol (TCPy), a metabolite of chlorpyrifos as a biomarker of nonoccupational exposure is problematic and may overestimate nonoccupational exposures to chlorpyrifos by 10-to 20-fold because of the widespread presence of both TCPy and chlorpyrifos-methyl in the food supply. Current "background" (nonoccupational) levels of exposure to chlorpyrifos are several orders of magnitude lower than those required to inhibit plasma cholinesterase activity, which is a more sensitive target than nervous system cholinesterase.

Scientific misconduct and breach of publication ethics: one editor's experience.

I summarize my experience with scientific misconduct and breach of publication ethics during my 10 year term as Editor-in-Chief and my first 3 years as Scientific Integrity Advisor for Neurology, the official publication of the American Academy of Neurology. I describe in some detail the highly publicized, lengthy saga involving the accusation from a former colleague that James Abbs falsified data in an article published in Neurology. Nine years later, after numerous investigations and law suits, Abbs was found to have engaged in scientific misconduct which prompted the retraction of the article.