Category Archives: Inflammatory/ Auto-Immune Diseases

Distinguishing Encephalitis from Encephalopathy

Encephalitis may be defined as infection or inflammation of the brain substance, resulting typically in disturbed sensorium and perhaps seizures or focal neurological deficits and sometimes pyrexia. Encephalopathy in the other hand represents disturbed sensorium not due to an infective … Continue reading

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Disease Modifying Therapies in Multiple Sclerosis: Background for General Readers

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a presumed autoimmune condition of demyelination and often inflammation of the central nervous system. Its evolution is very variable; some patients suffer episodes lasting weeks to months with complete or near complete recovery in between, and … Continue reading

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Ocrelizumab versus Placebo in Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

Recent studies indicate that higher strength disease modifying therapies (DMTs) may slow disability progression in secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as reduce the number of relapses. There have also been trials in primary progressive MS but these, most … Continue reading

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Anti K+ Channel Antibodies in Neuromyotonia

Background At this Journal Club it was decided to review a historical paper on the pathophysiology underlying autoimmune neuromyotonia. The paper, “Autoantibodies Detected to Expressed K+ Channels Are Implicated in Neuromyotonia”, from Annals of Neurology (1997, 41:238-246), used a novel … Continue reading

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