AANEM News Express

Remembering Jun Kimura

    3/7/2022
AANEM Past President and electrodiagnostic pioneer Jun Kimura, MD, passed away on Thursday, March 3, 2022, at the age of 87.

"Dr. Kimura is truly a legend in both neurology and electrodiagnostic medicine and his impact on our disciplines cannot be overstated. His selfless and tireless teaching improved the quality of medical care across the globe. He was both a great person and truly good person that touched so many lives. I know I speak for many when I say that we will deeply miss our dear friend and mentor," said Dr. Jeff Strakowski.

Patient Safety: Statins and Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy

    2/21/2022
A 66 year old man with hypothyroidism is referred for an evaluation of severe muscle pain and proximal leg weakness which started shortly after initiating simvastatin treatment. What is most helpful to differentiate a toxic necrotizing myopathy from an immune mediated necrotizing myopathy?

Science News: IgG1 Pan-Neurofascin Antibodies Identify a Severe Yet Treatable Neuropathy With a High Mortality

    2/21/2022
The authors in this study tested patients with suspected inflammatory neuropathies for IgG antibodies against nodal (NF186) and paranodal (NF155, CNTN1 and Caspr1) cell adhesion molecules using a live, cell-based assay (CBA) and found eight patients (1.2%) with IgG1 antibodies to both NF186/NF140 isoforms and NF155 isoforms, but no IgG3 or IgG4 subclass antibodies. Clinical and laboratory and histopathological features were assessed and compared with seronegative and patients with other nodal/paranodal antibodies.

Science News: Pure Motor Onset and IgM-Gammopathy Occurrence in Multifocal Acquired Demyelinating Sensory and Motor Neuropathy

    2/21/2022
This study investigates patients with multifocal acquired demyelinating sensory and motor (MADSAM) neuropathy with and without monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS). Of 76 patients with MADSAM, 53% had pure motor, 16% pure sensory, 30% sensory-motor and 1% cranial. Motor onset patients were initially diagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN). MGUS occurred in 25% (89% IgM) associating with ganglioside autoantibodies. Median time to sensory involvement in motor onset patients was 18 months.

Latest Anthology of Articles from the News Science Editorial Board Now Available

    2/16/2022
The 2021 News Science Anthology is now available!

Science News: Ratio of Urinary N-terminal Titin Fragment to Urinary Creatinine is a Novel Biomarker for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

    2/7/2022
Sensitive and specific disease biomarkers for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are lacking. There has been ongoing research in the past several years looking for them. Titin is a giant myofibrillar protein in skeletal muscle. Elevated levels of urinary N-terminal fragment of titin has been reported in degenerative conditions, such as Duchene muscular dystrophy (DMD). This study looked at the validity and reliability of urinary N-terminal titin fragment as a biomarker in ALS.

Science News: Prediagnostic Neurofilament Light Chain Levels in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

    2/7/2022
This study focused on pre-diagnostic biomarkers in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This matched case-control study included 84 individuals who developed ALS during follow-up and had available plasma samples prior to disease diagnosis. For each ALS case, a randomly matched control was selected. Neurofilament (NfL) in these pre-diagnostic plasma samples were measured and adjusted for body mass index, smoking physical activity, etc. Higher NfL levels were found to be associated with a high ALS risk within 5 years of ALS diagnosis. 

Science News: Frequency of Neurologic Manifestations in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

    1/26/2022
More than 1 year into the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) has caused more than 200 million cases and 4.28 million deaths across 220 countries as of August 9, 2021. This article is a systemic review and meta-analysis to obtain pooled prevalence estimates to understand the variation in reported frequencies of various neurologic manifestations in patients with COVID-19 across different groups in literature published from December 31, 2019, to December 15, 2020.  

Science News: Association Between SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Immune-Mediated Myopathy in Patients Who Have Died

    1/26/2022
This is a case-control, postmortem (within 6 days) study in Germany focusing on the skeletal (either deltoid or quadriceps) and cardiac muscle pathology in SARS-CoV-2 patients. This study shows SARS-CoV-2 may be associated with a post-infectious, immune-mediated myopathy. 

Seeking Nominations for AANEM Board by March 4, 2022

    1/17/2022
The AANEM Nominating Committee is seeking AANEM Board of Director candidates to present for election at the 2022 annual meeting. Nominate yourself or a colleague today!