EAN News

The 5th EAN Congress held in Oslo from June 29 to July 2 is now over and it’s time to look back. The Congress was a great success for EAN and for us in the local organising committee in Norway. Number of participants was the highest ever with 6919 registered delegates, and the number of submitted abstracts was all-time high at 2250. Number of applications for the tournament for young investigators was up about 40% for basic and more than 20% for clinical research. These figures illustrate the high and rapidly increasing activity in our society. At the same time, EAN definitely managed to make its mark on the city of Oslo with 24 EAN banners on both sides of Karl Johan, the main street of the city.

Every month, you will find an original self-portrait of one Scientific Committee member, who will respond informally to the same 5 questions. Here we go!

Interview with Prof. Claudio Baracchini - President of the ESNCH Prof. Dafin Muresanu interviews President of the ESNCH, Prof. Claudio Baracchini

The guideline education and Cost-Conscious Healthcare (CoCoCare) programme was launched prior to the 5th EAN Congress in Oslo. 

It is my great pleasure to be invited to introduce myself to you in my new role as editor of EAN Pages, starting at our Congress in Oslo. I am a neurologist based in Sheffield in the UK, running busy general and neuromuscular clinics, with a research interest in motor neuron disease. First of all, I want to thank my predecessor and friend, Professor Elena Moro, for leading us to our current position of strength at EAN Pages.

Norway is located in the western and northern part of Scandinavia, and it is well known for its beautiful scenery with fjords and waterfalls along the coastline, its mountainous wilderness, and for Arctic regions with northern lights in the winter and midnight sun during the summer. Norway is one of Europe's most sparsely populated countries with 5.2 million people in a land area of 385,802 km2. The most densely populated area is around the city of Oslo in the south-east of the country. Oslo, the Norway’s capital, is the fastest-growing capital in Europe.

Prof. Fischer presented the first lecture on the subject of recanalization in acute stroke with a short review of the current status of acute stroke management and a focused discussion on a great deal of the unanswered questions concering reperfusion therapy, including the safety and contraindications of r-tPA, the risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage, intra-venous thrombolysis for minor strokes, wake-up strokes, extending the time window, the use of alteplase vs. tenecteplase as well as the unaswered questions regarding endovascular treatment, such as extending the time window, basilar occlusion, use in cases with either low NIHSS or low ASPECTS scores.

This year, at the annual hospital visit of the Resident and Research Fellow Section (RRFS) of the European Academy of Neurology, nearly 80 resident and research fellows visited to the Neurology Department of the Rikshospitalet, organized with the support of Dr. Silje Bjerknes, local resident and PhD candidate.

The last day of the Congress and time to take stock. Kell Morten Myhr summarised the field of multiple sclerosis (MS), which received 205 abstracts. Professor Myhr started his highlights with papers by Persson et al from Lexington reporting longitudinal observational survival data in MS and Stahmann et al from Hanover who reported variable rates of starting disease-modifying therapy. Professor Myhr considered that these papers together pointed toward a need to start MS therapy early. Prognostic blood biomarkers were then considered with vitamin D shown to predict long-term disability (Wesnes et al, Trondheim), whilst neurofilament light chain was associated with development of cognitive impairment in secondary progressive MS (Kuhle et al, Basel).

This year’s Networking event during the 5th EAN congress took place at the  Oslo City Hall on Monday evening (July 1), where the attendees were impressed by the striking functional architecture and scale of the main hall. 

We congratulate the winners of the EAN Tournament during the 5th EAN Congress in Oslo. In two sessions, twelve young scientists presented their outstanding work.

Oslo hosted the general assembly of the resident and research fellow section (RRFS) of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) during the 5th annual congress. The assembly received a broad participation from RRFS members who were interested in gaining insight into the annual report as well as the new Treasurer elections.

This year’s „Round table discussion” of the EAN Resident and Research Fellow Section (RRFS) was performed for the first time in form of two controversial topics with a “podium” discussion. The discussion was performed in a rather informal and open way between two experts providing a thorough discussion including pro and contra arguments based on individual experience as well as facts, allowing participants to ask questions in general as well as specific to their own situation and request advice.

This symposium focused on presenting the essential elements of clinical and imaging diagnosis, the diagnostic difficulties and the therapeutic possibilities on progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP).

The latest revision of multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnostic criteria (2017 Thompson criteria) have changed the way we diagnose MS and have posed totally new challenges to MS clinical practice.