Mitochondrial transport down dorsal root ganglion axons is impaired by saturated fatty acids, a likely mechanism leading to energy loss and axonal neuropathy in Type 2 diabetes. The slide is from a lecture from Prof. Eva Feldman’s lab.

The 13th Congress of the Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) took place July 8-13, in Sitges, Spain. The PNS hosts annual congresses, and the next congress will be in July 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2019, it will take place in Genoa, Italy.

For the International Congress on Neuromuscular Diseases (ICMND) 2018 in Vienna, the Neuromuscular Congress of the Research Group on Neuromuscular Disease of WFN, it is planned that a joint session of the PNS and ICNMD will take place.

The Congress of the PNS is devoted to the peripheral nerves, not only on clinical entities, but building the gap between basic research and toward the clinical implications.

This year, there were 500 participants from more than 50 nations. The PNS has a strong emphasis on education, and about 100 young participants were sponsored to attend the meeting in order to present posters and platform presentations.

The scientific content contained many basic and translational aspects, such as the molecular aspects of node of Ranvier, the metabolic support of axons by Schwann cells, and the new models of auto-immunity to nodal components. Also, pain and ion channels were discussed in plenary lectures.

Sitges, Spain, proved to be an attractive site for the Peripheral Nerve Society Meeting with excellent meeting facilities and attractive beaches.

One of the concerns of the PNS is the research and treatment of inflammatory neuropathies. Treatment studies and open questions were discussed. Another important aspect is diabetic neuropathy, where worldwide an increase of diabetes as a noncommunicable disease is being observed. Mechanisms and possible treatments were discussed. The role of changing food habits, lack of exercise, and lifestyle seem to contribute to this development. A future strategy in a worldwide campaign against diabetic neuropathy was initiated.

Several papers and posters addressed issues of genetic neuropathies. Increasingly, chemotherapy-induced neuropathies are attracting attention, not only in regard to prevention, but also pain treatment and management.

Neuropathic pain was a topic, and ion channels, particularly the PIEZO2, STOML3 channel, were explained and discussed. They will have an impact on our understanding of neuropathic pain. Also, the poster sessions contained several reports on treatment of neuropathic pain.

Daily poster sessions were filled with attendees. Many discussions and interactions took place. Many interesting and often rare observations were displayed and discussed. For scientific papers and merits, traditional prizes (as, for example, the PK Thomas prize) were awarded by the PNS.

In the final ceremony, Steven S. Scherer took over the presidency from Mary M. Reilly.

The congress was held in a nice venue–the Melia Hotel Sitges. Traditionally, as is familiar to all PNS meetings, the atmosphere was good and open, and interactions were encouraged. It was excellently organized, and provided a useful platform to exchange ideas and to engage in networking.

By Profs. Peter Wolf and Alla B. Guekht

Inauguration photo from the association’s founding in 1992. Front row from the left: Profs. Peter Wolf, F. Manz, K. Schimrigk, Levon Badalyan, E. Gusev, and B. Guekht.

A meeting on Diseases of the Nervous System — Mechanisms and Treatment was held April 6-7 in Moscow to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Association for Promotion of German-Russian Cooperation in Neurology.

This association, whose name was later changed to the Russian-German Neurological Society, is perhaps not well known in global neurology, but played an important role in the first period after the European system shifts of 1989-1990. Until then, for about half a century, there had been extremely few possibilities for neuroscientists of West Germany and the Soviet Union to meet and exchange their views or to publish in each other’s journals.

The scientific developments on both sides of the Iron Curtain often  went different ways, and the post-World War II generations in East and West took little notice of each other. This was quite a change from earlier traditions, and symptomatic of the general disruption within Europe.

The new possibilities were first explored by Prof. Jefim Salganik of Gütersloh, a German neurologist who was born in the Soviet Union and had studied medicine in Moscow. He contacted and then visited Prof. Levon Badalyan of Moscow, who had been an opponent for his doctoral thesis.

In consequence, a visit of a group of neurologists from northern Germany was organized in February 1991. They met with a group of leading Russian neurologists and their disciples for a seminar, which was held in Moscow and Yaroslavl, Russia. It became an unforgettable experience for all participants. Transportation, lodgings, translations, and meeting facilities, including something as unusual at the time as video demonstrations, needed a lot of improvisation.

All difficulties were overcome by the local organizers, and the hospitality was overwhelming. There was great mutual curiosity about the methods and traditions that had developed, and time set aside for discussion was never sufficient. Thus, the last papers were delivered and discussed on the bus, as all drove back together to Moscow through the white winter landscape. It was one of the occasions where enduring friendships arise among people who until then had been foreigners to each other.

Both sides expressed a strong interest in establishing a platform for future exchange and meetings. Also, in the German group, many were strongly aware of Nazi Germany’s barbarous actions, especially in Eastern Europe. The German group found it their duty to be the first to reach out to Russian colleagues and integrate them into the common European agenda.

When in 1992 the Russian group was received in Germany for a second scientific encounter, the association was founded and registered in Germany, where it also came to function as a commission of the German Neurological Society. Leading neurologists from both countries (Profs. Badalyan, Gusev, Guekht, Schimrigk, Wolf, Haass, Salganik, Manz, and many others) contributed to the establishment and further development of the society.

In the following years, annual meetings alternating between the two countries took place, and informal fellowships for the training of young neurologists were privately organized. More colleagues became interested and joined the society. Over the years, as international contacts and exchange possibilities multiplied, the general meetings lost their uniqueness
and became rarer. However, in some subspecialties, bilateral cooperation intensified and deepened, especially in stroke, epilepsy, and neuromuscular diseases, where several early association members became national and international key players.

The 25th anniversary meeting was a welcome occasion to update newer research and to remember an initiative reflecting very well the spirit and optimism of the early 1990s, which definitely made a change for European neurology. 

Prof. Peter Wolf is from Dianalund and Florianópolis, and Prof. Alla B. Guekht is from Moscow.

By Prof. Ahmed Abdelalim

A stroke physician and assistants performed a transcranial duplex.

Egypt has the 15th largest population in the world, with approximately one-quarter of its citizens clustered in its capital, Cairo. Stroke medicine in Egypt has been facing many difficulties with implementation due to the economic problems and an inadequate number of stroke neurologists.

Kasralainy Medical School is the largest medical center in the Middle East, with a capacity of over 5,000 beds providing medical services to more than
2 million people per year, half of which are served in the emergency department. The first stroke unit was established over 20 years ago, but could not satisfy the need due to the rapidly growing population and difficulties with the insurance system.

The plan for a new stroke center was then created with great ambitions of going beyond offering medical services to providing stroke training and research opportunities to Egyptian, African, and Middle Eastern neurologists and to help raise community awareness. Over the years, the neurology department has sent many of its young members to European stroke centers, through grants, to be trained on modern stroke medicine together with in-house training on advanced life support and neurocritical care skills. Today, these neurologists have become the core of the new stroke unit and trainers to their younger colleagues.

The stroke team, including stroke nurses and administrative personnel.

In 2010, the hospital administration granted the place and funds to establish the new stroke unit. Due to the political circumstances in 2011, the project was halted until 2015, when the Kasralainy administration, led by Prof. Fathy Khodair, dean of the medical school, showed a great interest and determination to fulfill the project. In August 2016, the stroke unit was ready for a new start.

The new stroke unit has a capacity of 36 beds, which includes 14 intensive care (with ventilation capability), 14 intermediate care, four isolation, two thrombolytic therapy, and two resuscitation beds, with the capacity of providing thrombolytic stroke therapy concurrently for four or more patients. This makes the unit the largest high-dependency stroke unit in the Middle East fully run by neurologists, offering thrombolytic therapy and thrombectomy to all Egyptians free of charges. The unit provides advanced acute stroke treatment services, including neurosurgery, neurointervention, advanced neuroimaging, and neuro-rehabilitation for 1,500-2,000 patients per year.

The Kasralainy Medical School stroke unit.

The opening of the new stroke unit received another boost thanks to the new policy on supporting and promoting stroke medicine, together with the efforts of the Stroke Chapter of the Egyptian Society of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Neurosurgery to coordinate between stroke units on a national level and promote the use of guidelines and hospital-based registries. The training and research opportunities are further supported and extended by the WFN accreditation of the neurology department at Cairo University as a training center for English-speaking African neurologists.

The ongoing “revolution” of stroke medicine in Egypt has made the floor ready for great success for the new stroke treatment policy, with a better acute stroke treatment service and reduction of the national and regional burden of stroke. The new Kasralainy stroke unit is ready to play its leading role. 

Prof. Ahmed Abdelalim is the director of the Stroke Unit, Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University.