Electroretinogram by Donnell J Creel

Figure Reference: Med.Utah.edu (linked, pl click)

In general, intraopertive neurophysiological monitoring teams do not conduct ERG or EOG in the Operating room set up, it is rather cumbersome and difficult to get a reliable readings combined with the difficulty of placing the recording electrode and risks that are associated with the procedure.  However, Donnell in its Chapter on"The electroretinogram" presents the latest developments that record the status of retinal function using skin electrodes and he also sheds light on the recent advancement in ERG the multifocal retiongram. Whether you are going to conduct this test or not, if you are interested in all the evoked potentials and the basics, this is an excellent reading material. Enjoy.

 The Electroretinogram: Clinical Applications by Donnell J. Creel

Electrophysiological testing of patients with retinal disease began in clinical departments in the late nineteen forties. Under the influence of the Swedish pioneers, Holmgren (1865) and Granit (1933), the electroretinogram was being dissected into component parts and early intraretinal electrode studies were beginning to tell which cells or cell layers gave rise to the various components. A detailed discussion of the electroretinogram, or ERG as it is commonly abbreviated, is found in the accompanying chapter by Ido Perlman. A little after the introduction of the ERG as a test of the state of the patient’s retina, another diagnostic test called the electrooculogram (EOG) was introduced to the clinic (Arden et al., 1962). The EOG had advantages over the ERG in that electrodes did not touch the surface of the eye. The changes in the standing potential across the eyeball were recorded by skin electrodes during simple eye movements and after exposure to periods of light and dark. Over the years ERG recording techniques have become progressively more sophisticated in the clinical setting. With the advent of perimetry, optical coherence tomography (OCT) and pattern ERG techniques, more precise mapping of dysfunctional areas of the retina is now possible. The most recent advance in ERG technology is the multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG). The mfERG provides a detailed assessment of the health of the central retina.

The Year in Neurology, 2011 Drug approvals and New treatments for Neurological disorders?

Medscape Article: 

Andrew N. Wilner, MD writes about the recent developments in basic science and clinical medicine to treat some of the impending neurological diseases, including several FDA approval on new drugs, interesting article.

A Look Back: Introduction

2011 has been a very exciting year for neurologists and their patients. Advances in basic science and disciplined clinical trials have led to drug approvals for the prevention of stroke and treatment of epilepsy. In addition, at least 2 oral drugs for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, BG-12 and teriflunomide, boast positive results from phase 3 trials and are poised for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
In 2010, the FDA approved dabigatran, a thrombin inhibitor, for anticoagulation in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. In November 2011, the FDA approved rivaroxaban, a once-daily oral factor Xa inhibitor, for the same indication. Another factor Xa inhibitor, apixaban, recently demonstrated superior results to warfarin in preventing stroke or systemic embolism, with less bleeding and lower mortality, and may soon be approved as well.^{[1]
Full article at Medscape linked at the top.} 

NeuroPhysiology Fed Research Funding declined Significantly?

Research Crossroads published the following chart for Neurophysiology funding, pretty bleak is the research fundings in our field?.




Both Neurophysiology funding and number of grants for research has been steeply declined since 2006 and it is probably at the 1994-6 levels, the lowest of funding provided to Neurophysiology research during these periods since 1992

Funding History?

Charted historical Neurophysiology funding.

IONM background, literature, history and Updates...!

Check out the latest news or reports topic and my upcoming editorial of animal electricity....!!

You Tube Video & Anguish of a Lay man about NeuroMonitoring?

Oh I wish there was someone from Neuromonitoring field had noticed the following random ranting of a lay man with quite an Anguish tone filled with incredible painful experience of being Stalked by some Remote stuff?, that this man decided to call it remote neuromonitring?, since no one helped this guy, his confusion continues as this posting,. So far and no one clarified online or offline to this man, I had to stretch from already busy blog writing to even answer unrelated rants of this kind, finally I had to do it myself to bring attention of this issue both to this lay man and to the Neuromonitoring professionals.

Dear Mr, Guy?,

Let me respectfully assert you that you have no idea or knowledge about Neuromonitoring or Remote Neuromoitoring, I wish you had consulted someone who knows about this field before making this public video that talks unintelligibly about a Scientific and Clinical Surgery field known as Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring or in general known as Neuromonitoring.

Do you Smell: This is the Special Issue of ACS Chemical Senses published at SFN!

For those interested in sensory modalities and the recent developments especially on olfactory system, this topic might of great interest. A special issue on chemical senses published at the Society for neuroscience site.

One of the most extensive research work of mine explores the ability of central nervous pathway "olfactory tract" regeneration following experimentally induced transection (simulation of certain type of traumatic damage), the results have already been published in many reputed journals, a fascinating finding indicating though CNS has limited abilities to regenerate, central tracts like olfactory pathway has enormous regenerative potentials even at the synaptic reorganization levels (Exp Neurol. 1997 Mar;144(1):174-82. Regeneration of the olfactory tract following neonatal lesion in rats. Munirathinam S et al). This special issue mostly covers the advancement in perception of chemical senses by using PET and fMRI imaging studies, a good read to update Olfactory Sense?.

Our knowledge regarding the neural processing of the three chemical senses has been considerably lagging behind that of our other senses. It is only during the last 25 years that significant advances have been made in our understanding of where in the human brain odors, tastants, and trigeminal stimuli are processed. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge of how the human brain processes chemical stimuli based on findings in neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, we provide new insights from recent meta-analyses, on the basis of all published neuroimaging studies of the chemical senses, of where the chemical senses converge in the brain.
http://pubs.acs.org/toc/acncdm/2/1

Learning EMG control of a robotic hand: towards active prostheses

for those who are interested in "EMG's" and developments in the field of usage of EMGs...!

ABSTRACT

We introduce a method based on support vector machines which can detect opening and closing actions of the human thumb, index finger, and other fingers recorded via surface EMG only. The method is shown to be robust across sessions and can be used independently of the position of the arm. With these stability criteria, the method is ideally suited for the control of active prosthesis with a high number of active degrees of freedom. The method is successfully demonstrated on a robotic four-finger hand, and can be used to grasp objects

New Edition Of Aage's Book is Ready in Dec 2010.

Oh, I can't wait to get a copy of this new edition of Aage's Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring, just noticed today on Amazon that the book was released couple of weeks ago, it is available at Amazon ..........

From the Back Cover

The third edition of this classic text again provides practical, comprehensive coverage of the anatomical and physiological basis for intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. Written by a leading authority in the field, Dr. Aage Moller has updated this important title to again offer all the leading-edge knowledge needed to perform electrophysiological recordings in the operating room, to interpret the results, and to present the results to the surgeon. The field known as "intraoperative monitoring" has expanded rapidly to cover other uses of neurophysiology and electrophysiologic recordings during surgical operations that affect the brain, spinal cord, and other parts of the nervous system. These new areas are covered in this new edition. To better represent the content of the book and the field as it now stands, many of the chapters have been revised and new material has been added. While the general organization of the book is maintained, chapters such as monitoring of motor systems have been revised and extended with new material, including more detailed description of the anatomy and physiology of motor systems and new information about intraoperative monitoring.

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http://www.amazon.com/Intraoperative-Neurophysiological-Monitoring-Aage-M%C3%B8ller/dp/1441974350/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Product Details Hardcover: 656 pages Publisher: Springer; 3rd Edition.  edition (December 10, 2010) Language: English ISBN-10: 1441974350 ISBN-13: 978-1441974358