Fellow: Antoniangela Cocco, Italy
Term of the Fellowship: 16.9. – 1.11.2019
Hosting department: Neurodegeneration Imaging Group, Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Kings’s College London, Camberwell, United Kingdom
Supervisor: Prof. Marios Politis
I had the opportunity to spend six weeks at Neurodegeneration Imaging Group (NIG), Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Department, King’s College London, led by Prof. Politis, under his and Dr De Natale the supervision.
Even though six weeks is really short period of time for such a complex field, during my fellowship I had the opportunity to deepen my knowledge in neuroimaging of movement disorders and increase my experience in molecular imaging and in new tracing developments.
During my residence I could follow the activities of the patients involved in the clinical trials and I was also involved in some simple research activities. In particular, I learned the basics of brain MRI segmentation, an essential task in many clinical applications. It is commonly used for measuring and visualising the brain’s anatomical structures, for analysing brain changes and for delineating pathological regions. Moreover, it is essential for multimodal imaging techniques such as PET and MRI combination.
Furthermore, I attended the outpatient clinic of Movement Disorders patients, where I had the opportunity to evaluate and discuss many interesting clinical cases, and the weekly Multidisciplinary Team meeting during which several topics about the latest research or recently published articles were discussed.
I really appreciate the period I have spent at the NIG and I would like to thank the entire NIG staff for being so willing to teach and share their knowledge. I would also like to thank the European Academy of Neurology for giving me this opportunity and for supporting me in this experience.
Fellow: Giulia Di Lazzaro, Italy
Term of the Fellowship: 4.3. – 4.6.2019
Hosting department: Department of Clinical Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH, London, United Kingdom
Supervisor: Prof. Kailash Bhatia
Attending the department of clinical neurology in UCLH, London I had access to several and different opportunities to improve my knowledge in neurology, and in particular in movement disorders.
- There are two movement disorders clinic meetings per week with Prof. Bhatia, who loves teaching and involves all the fellow in clinical reasoning, neurological examination and diagnostic-therapeutic approach.
- Once a week there is a visit to Botulinum toxin injection clinic, during which it is possible to see patients affected mostly by segmental or focal dystonia. This is a good place to learn how to plan a toxin treatment or manage follow-ups according to patients’ response to treatment and clinical examination.
- Ward round is held once a week. It is possible to see more complex patients who cannot be managed in the outpatient clinic. Registrars would present the case, Professor Bhatia would visit and interview him/her or the family and then it is discussed collegially.
- Once a week there is Gower’s case presentation from all the professors in UCLH NHNN. Here, I had the possibility to attend a comprehensive and interactive discussion of neurological cases from all branches.
- There are also different meetings which I could freely attend, the basal ganglia meeting, the curious neurologist course, video cases seminars, neuroimaging and neurophysiology meetings.
- Finally, it is possible to take part in some research projects, mainly in the neurophysiology domain.
I really enjoyed the interactivity and case discussion during the clinics because this prompted me to study, question myself and search the literature for answers. In addition, I had the unique possibility to see very rare movement disorders, since NHNN is a tertiary referral centre.
