Neuro Muscular

Multidisciplinary collaboration is a central design feature of the diagnostic and treatment facilities established by Department faculty for research, training, and patient care in the area of neuromuscular disorders. Scope of practice and clinical and biomedical investigation, with the aligned UCSD resources of the General Clinical and Research Center and the Laboratory for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Research, extends from ALS and its variants to other motor neurone diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy, post-polio syndrome, and hereditary spastic paraparesis, and to myasthenia gravis and peripheral neuropathy. Electromyogram and nerve conduction studies as primary diagnostic tools and botulinum toxin injections as a treatment for focal dystonia, hemifacial spasm, spasticity, and migraine comprise major emphases in clinical assessment and training. Ongoing lines of biomedical inquiry include the pathophysiology of spasticity in upper motor neurone syndrome and the identification of non-neuronal cells that can protect motor neurons from toxicity of familial ALS-linked superoxide dismutase 1 mutants.

Patient Care
ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease
Neuromuscular Service

Research

Don W. Cleveland, PhD
Nayan P. Desai, MD
Timothy M. Miller, MD, PhD
Geoffrey L. Sheean, MD, MBBS