Norra Macready

Despite the enormous progress made in stroke diagnosis and treatment in recent years, patients continue to experience stroke-related deficits that clinicians-even those working on stroke rehabilitation units-do not always recognize or record. In a recent study of 53 patients who underwent screening tests within 10 days of admission to a stroke unit, every impaired patient had at least 1 undocumented cognitive or sensory deficit. The authors suggested that without formal testing with standardized assessments, much stroke-related impairment goes unrecognized and perhaps untreated.

They can't reproduce, but mature neurons can grow. Indeed, for more than a century, neurologists have been able to restore at least partial function to severed peripheral nerve networks through neuronal transplantation. But the CNS has proved more recalcitrant: there, scar tissue and a complex molecular brew stymie the efforts of damaged axons to sprout new fibers and restore old connections.

From the contentious debate over federal funding for stem cell research, it would be easy to assume that if restrictions were lifted, research would blossom and miraculous therapies would spring up like mushrooms after a downpour. Those who have been following the controversy over federal subsidies know that even if funds were unrestricted, investigators would still have to clear several significant hurdles before treatments derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) could become a reality.

Neurologists have long debated whether NMO is simply a variant of multiple sclerosis (MS) or a separate disease, and misdiagnosis is common.