SNI Blog

Migraine is a primary headache dis­order that causes significant suffering in approximately 13 percent of the popula­tion of the United States. It accounts for an estimated $23 billion in annual cost to the economy through health-care expenses and lost productivity.

Two major features of migraine are migraine aura (MA) and headache. MA occurs in nearly one-third of migraine pa­tients and consists of one or more focal neurological symptoms that develop gradually over 5-20 minutes and persist for less than 60 minutes. MA typically precedes development of migraine headache.

Several years ago single-center retrospective analyses first reported an apparent association between partial or complete relief of migraine symptoms and transcatheter clo­sure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) for secondary stroke prevention (Reisman M, et al., 2005). The fora­men ovale normally serves as a one-way valve in the interatrial septum for physiologic right-to-left shunt in utero. Complete fusion of interatrial septae normally occurs by two years of age. When septae fail to fuse, how­ever, the PFO is a potential tunnel that can be opened by reversal of the interatrial pressure gradient. PFO is the most common form of right-to-left circulatory shunt (RLS).

Intracranial aneurysms are present in up to 4 percent of the population. These potentially dangerous vascular lesions are being detected with increasing frequency in asymptomatic patients by advances in noninvasive imaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). Appearing like blisters on the wall of the brain’s blood vessels, aneurysms develop when the blood vessel’s native repair ability is exceeded by the mild, but constant, injury created by flowing blood under high pressure. The five most common risk factors for developing an aneurysm are: smoking, female gender, high blood pressure, middle age and family history.

Intracranial aneurysms are complex lesions that require a highly specialized, multidisciplinary approach that is individualized for each patient. Key members of the care team for these patients include endovascular neuroradiologists, neurosurgeons with special expertise in aneurysm surgery and neuroanesthesiologists. Availability of dedicated neurocritical care units is an essential care component. A consensus recommendation by these specialists may include close observation, obliteration of the aneurysm with a surgical clip, or filling the vascular outpouching with filamentous coils that are introduced by endovascular microcatheters via an artery in the leg. This latter process is called “coiling.”

Today, health-care providers who treat patients with spinal tumors are able to offer a myriad of treatment options that were essentially non-existent in the recent past. Internationally renowned speaker, inventor, entrepreneur and neurosurgeon, John R. Alder, M.D., will present the keynote presentation at this year's symposium and initiate our discussion of the technical and therapeutic options available for spinal tumor patients.

For full course information and to register: http//www.swedish.org/spinaltumors2011

The Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance announced today that it has designated the Swedish Pediatric Neuroscience Center (SPNC) at SNI as a TSC Clinic. Marcio Sotero, MD, medical director of SPNC, is the director of the new center. This designation is an important step forward in the regional delivery of care to patients with tuberous sclerosis, as the TSC Clinics closest to Seattle are located at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix and Children’s Hospital in Oakland, CA.

TSC is a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form in many different organs, primarily in the brain, eyes, heart, kidney, skin and lungs. Seizures are a very common manifestation, and some people with TSC experience developmental delay, mental retardation and autism.

Marcio Sotero de Menezes, MD, Pediatric Epilepsy, Pediatric Neurology, Swedish Neuroscience Institute

Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, attendees will have an increased ability to:

• Identify genetic epilepsy syndromes
• Explain treatment of genetic epilepsy syndromes

SNI Grand Round Series is every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month.

The Winter 2010 edition of BrainWaves is now available online.

BrainWaves is the newsletter of the Swedish Neuroscience Institute. Published quarterly, BrainWaves provides information about neurological conditions treated at the Institute, and also profiles the programs, services, and new initiatives of the institute and its staff.

Also check out our past editions of the BrainWaves newsletter.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

7:30am - 8:30am

Swedish Education and Conference Center, Room B

Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, attendees will have an increased ability to:

• Discuss the options for hearing restoration using osteointegrated implants and cochlear implants
• Describe the role of auditory brainstem implants
• Outline the indications for cochlear implants and auditory brainstem implants (ABI)

SNI Grand Round Series is every 1st and 3rd Thursday of each month.