Neurology

Effect of walking on cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease

April 24, 2013

A new study of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease reports that sedentary patients show significant deterioration in MMSE total score compared to more active patients, and that walking on a regular basis appears to stabilize cognitive decline (Winchester et al. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2013;56:96-103). A total of 104 AD patients were followed over a 12-month period and categorized as Active or Sedentary based on Yale Physical Activity Survey scores.

Active patients who walked more than two hours per week had significant improvement in MMSE scores whereas Sedendary patients had significant worsening of MMSE scores.

Resistance training in PD: review of the evidence

April 24, 2013

A systematic review of five controlled studies has concluded that resistance training can provide benefits to patients with Parkinson’s disease (Brienesse et al. J Am Med Dir Assoc 2013;14:236-241).

Uric acid and Parkinson’s disease

April 10, 2013

Uric acid (UA) is the end product of purine metabolism in which adenosine, guanosine and inosine are broken down to form xanthine, which is converted to UA by xanthine oxidoreductase. In most mammals and other species, UA is further metabolized to allantoin by urate oxidase. In humans, a mutation to the UOx gene early in our evolution resulteprogred in an absence of functioning urate oxidase. In consequence, UA levels are as much as 10-fold higher in humans compared to other species (Alvarez-Lario & Macarron-Vicente. Rheumatology 2010;49:2010-2015).

Alemtuzumab: phase III results

April 10, 2013

The results of the phase III trials, CARE MS-I and CARE MS-II, show that alemtuzumab significantly reduces relapse rate by about 50% compared to interferon-beta-1a SC (Cohen et al. Lancet 2012; 380:1819-1828).

Disease activity-free rates at 1 and 2 years

March 23, 2013

REPORT FROM THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY (AAN) ANNUAL MEETING, SAN DIEGO, CA, MARCH 16-23, 2013 – An emerging metric in MS research is the proportion of patients who are disease-activity free (DAF), defined as no relapses, no MRI activity (T2 or Gd+ T1 lesions) and no sustained EDSS progression. One of the first uses was an analysis of the AFFIRM dataset, which reported a two-year DAF rate of 37% with natalizumab versus 7% with placebo (Havrdova et al. Lancet Neurol 2009;8:254-260).