Friday 29 September 2017

TMS-EEG evoked potentials (TEPs) in Iceland

29th of Sept 2017 Reykjavik Iceland

TMS-EEG evoked potentials (TEP) were performed during a joint meeting of Clinical Neurophysiology Unit team (Neurophysiology Plus Iceland) and Icelandic Center of Clinical Neurophysiology from Reykjavik University.
The meeting was organized by Assist Prof Dr Paolo Gargiulo (Director of Institute of Biomedical and Neural Engineering, Reykjavik University & Landspitali) and had as participants Dr Magnús Kjartan Gíslason & MSc Thorsteinn Geirsson (NeckCare), Aron Dalin Jónasson MSc, Hildigunnur Katrinardóttir MSc & Ovidiu C. Banea MD (Neurophysiology Lab Landspitali and Reykjavik University) and Egill Axfjörður Friðgeirsson, PhD Student University of Amsterdam.


First TMS-EMG was performed to achieve the correct out of maximum TMS intensity necessary to evoke MEP into hand thenar muscles



Using 100% RMT TMS-EEG evoked potentials were recorded. This trial was performed on experimental basis within the expert team in a healthy subject who previously accepted the test. Another 15-20 voluntary healthy subjects will be tested on both TMS-EMG and TMS-EEG protocols in accordance with World Medical Association (WMA) Declaration of Helsinki, a statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects.

The future joint applied science clinical study will be developed after two international specific trainings and meetings in Denmark (Nov 2017) and France (January 2018). The aim is to assess biological neural networks (BNN) in patients with brain tumors and symptomatic epilepsy as a preoperative safety assessment of the functional brain tissue and effective connectivity in order to improve actual procedures (motor  & speech mapping and fMRI) and avoid new neurological deficit. Main collaborators of this challenging Icelandic medical research and clinical study are Neurosurgery Department of National University Hospital of Iceland (Drs Ingvar Hakon Ólafsson & Elfar Ulfarsson) and Neurosurgery Department of del Mar Hospital Barcelona, Spain (Dr Gerard Conesa). Scientific support and research specific feedback is given by Dr Eric Wassermann (NINDS/NIH; Bethesda, United States) and Prof Dr Elías Ólafsson (Head of Neurology Department, National University Hospital of Iceland).

Monday 4 September 2017

Guyon Type II (pure motor), who was Jean Casimir Félix Guyon?

by Neurophysiology Plus Iceland

In a 72 year-old male with suspected carpal tunnel syndrome (?) our team was able to identify a rare case of pure motor (type II) Guyon syndrome using nerve conduction studies. Case report (here). The report was corrected and split-hand index (SI) was calculated after a very good comment we received from Dr Giorgio Capoccitti (Università degli Studi di Siena, Tuscany Italy).