Headache in Behçet's syndrome: review of literature and NYU Behçet's syndrome center experience.

Headache, a common and disabling symptom in Behçet's syndrome, may be associated with a variety of neurologic syndromes and ocular inflammation, or may present as an isolated feature. Our objective is to describe the various neurologic and ocular syndromes of Behçet's syndrome of which headache is a symptom, and to review the features of isolated headaches in Behçet's. We also report results of a study of headache in Behçet's syndrome patients who are followed at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, the first study of its kind in North American patients, and the first to document prevalence of both episodic and chronic daily headache in Behçet's.

The Neuromuscular Portal and Match: Working Toward a More Fair, Equitable, and Transparent Process.

Prior to 2021, the neuromuscular medicine fellowship application process suffered from non-standardized timelines and substantial variability. To rectify this, the American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine (AANEM) established a standardized application timeline and an online application portal in 2020-2021, followed by the introduction of a partial match process. In 2021-2022, AANEM launched a traditional, binding, two-way match system for fellowship positions allocation based on the Gale-Shapley stable matching algorithm. Surveys assessing perceptions of fairness in the application portal and match process were dispatched to applicants and program directors following the 2021 and 2022 recruitment cycles. In the 2020-21 cycle, 90% of program directors and 95% of applicants affirmed the standardized timeline benefited applicants. However, 57% of applicants deemed the process as unfair. All programs and most applicants (58%) favored a transition to a two-way match. The implementation of the two-way match in 2021-22 attracted participation from 97% of programs, with 80% of applicants and 95% of programs viewing the process as fair to applicants. A significant majority of both applicants (86%) and programs (94%) supported maintaining the standardized timeline and two-way match. We advocate for the universal adoption of the AANEM Match for neuromuscular fellowship recruitment and a standardized fellowship application timeline across all neurologic specialties to promote transparency, fairness, and equity for applicants.

Case-Control Study of Paresthesia Among World Trade Center-Exposed Community Members.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether paresthesia of the lower extremities following exposure to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster was associated with signs of neuropathy, metabolic abnormalities, or neurotoxin exposures. METHODS: Case-control study comparing WTC-exposed paresthesia cases with "clinic controls" (WTC-exposed subjects without paresthesias), and "community controls" (WTC-unexposed persons). RESULTS: Neurological histories and examination findings were significantly worse in cases than controls. Intraepidermal nerve fiber densities were below normal in 47% of cases and sural to radial sensory nerve amplitude ratios were less than 0.4 in 29.4%. Neurologic abnormalities were uncommon among WTC-unexposed community controls. Metabolic conditions and neurotoxin exposures did not differ among groups. CONCLUSIONS: Paresthesias among WTC-exposed individuals were associated with signs of neuropathy, small and large fiber disease. The data support WTC-related exposures as risk factors for neuropathy, and do not support non-WTC etiologies.