February 21 2012 Issue

1) Treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia and 2) Topic of the month: Paraneoplastic syndromes in neurology. This podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Bryan Cupka interviews Dr. Theresa Zesiewicz about her paper on treatment of spinocerebellar ataxia. Dr. Jennifer Fugate is reading our e-Pearl of the week about hereditary angioedema. In the next part of the podcast Dr. Chafic Karam interviews Dr. Josep Dalmau about NMDA encephalitis. Next week, you will hear the last interview by Dr. Karam with Dr. Dalmau about other paraneoplastic syndromes in neurology. The participants had nothing to disclose except Drs. Zesiewicz, Fugate, Karam and Dalmau.Dr. Zesiewicz serves on the speakers' bureau for and has received funding for travel and speaker honoraria from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.; serves on the editorial board of Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders; serves/has served as a consultant for Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Allergan, Inc., UCB, and Novartis; is listed as an inventor on a provisional patent on the use of nicotinic modulators in treating ataxia and imbalance held by the University of South Florida; and receives/has received research support from Pfizer Inc, the National Ataxia Foundation, the Friedreich's Ataxia Research Association, and the Bobby Allison Ataxia Research Center.Dr. Fugate serves on the editorial team for the Neurology® Resident and Fellow Section. Dr. Karam serves on the editorial team for the Neurology® Resident and Fellow Section.Dr. Dalmau serves on the editorial board of Neurology®; receives royalties from the editorial board of Up-To-Date; has filed a patent application for the use of LGI1 as a diagnostic test; has received royalties from Athena Diagnostics, Inc. for a patent re: Ma2 autoantibody test and has patents pending re: NMDA and GABAB receptor autoantibody tests (license fee payments received from EUROIMMUN AG); and receives research support from funding from EUROIMMUN AG, the NIH/NCI, and a McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders award.