Seminal Papers in Neurology

[Shibbyboi182]

Preceptor is a neurologist, and given that its my #1 choice, asked me to help with a small task of putting together a list of the seminal papers. I realize this is going to vary across sub-specialty, but I'm wondering what ya'll consider the important papers in the specialty. The one that came to mind for me at first was the NINDS TPA paper for ischemic stroke.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[typhoonegator]

Small task? Ha!

You're going to need to go a lot deeper than the December 1995 tPA paper. Think Charcot. Think Trousseau and his treatise on phlegmasia alba dolens. Some papers written over a hundred years ago still shape what we do every day. Those are seminal.

Think about articles like this:

Birkmayer, W. and Hornykiewicz, O. The L-3,4- dioxyphenylalanine (DOPA)-effect in Parkinson-akinesia. Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, 1961;73:787-788. Good luck even finding that without a librarian.

 

[kchan99]

There are many important papers in neurology, but some may be a matter of opinion or bias. Here are a few:

Movement Disorders
Braak H et al. Staging of brain pathology related to sporadic Parkinson’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging 2003; 24:197
Kinnier Wilson SA. Progressive lenticular degeneration: a familiar nervous disease associated with cirrhosis of the liver. Brain 1912

Please note that Wilson was one of the first neurologists to film his patients.


Neurocritical/Vascular
Hemphill JC 3rd. et al. The ICH score: a simple, reliable grading scale for intracerebral hemorrhage. Stroke 2001; 32: 891
Levy DE et al. Predicting outcome from hypoxic-ischemic coma. JAMA 1985; 253:1420


You may want to check Neurotree dot org for names of famous neurologists and their trainees for author suggestions.

 

[Hank Rearden]

Yes, this is no small task. I've never seen anyone culminate a comprehensive list for all of Neurology. Of course these lists are a matter of opinion, but here are many of the seminal papers in stroke in alphabetical order for your reading pleasure:
ACAS, ACST, ARISTOTLE, ATLANTIS, AVERROES, AVERT, CADISS, CAPRIE, CREST, DECIMAL, DESTINY, ECASS III, ESCAPE, EXCITE, EXTEND-IA, HAMLET, IMS III, INTERACT II, ISAT, IST III, LEAPS, MATCH, MR-CLEAN, NASCET, NINDS TPA, PROFESS, PROGRESS, RE-LY, ROCKET-AF, SAMMPRIS, SPAF III, SPARCL, STICH II, WARCEF, WASID

 

[typhoonegator]

Yes, this is no small task. I've never seen anyone culminate a comprehensive list for all of Neurology. Of course these lists are a matter of opinion, but here are many of the seminal papers in stroke in alphabetical order for your reading pleasure:
ACAS, ACST, ARISTOTLE, ATLANTIS, AVERROES, AVERT, CADISS, CAPRIE, CREST, DECIMAL, DESTINY, ECASS III, ESCAPE, EXCITE, EXTEND-IA, HAMLET, IMS III, INTERACT II, ISAT, IST III, LEAPS, MATCH, MR-CLEAN, NASCET, NINDS TPA, PROFESS, PROGRESS, RE-LY, ROCKET-AF, SAMMPRIS, SPAF III, SPARCL, STICH II, WARCEF, WASID

Don't forget AFFIRM -- the death knell for rhythm control in non-valvular AF. Put away the propafenone! Stroke incidence was no different between rate/rhythm control, but most of the strokes happened in patients who had either low INRs on warfarin or had stopped warfarin per study protocol after being in sinus for 4 weeks on rhythm control. So indirect evidence that rhythm control is a poor strategy for stroke prevention in non-valvular paroxysmal AF.

I don't really care if you think this trial belongs in your list, I only made this comment because it illustrates how insurmountable it is to try to carve out a list of "seminal papers" even in a pretty well-defined subfield of Neurology like stroke.

And if you asked someone in England, where stroke is often seen as a lower form of the science of neurology, they might scoff at this list of studies in favor of more work from Queen's Square and Pitie-Salpetriere, which to many is what constitutes "real neurology".