Department of Neurology
The Department of Neurology is internationally recognized for its specialized expertise in caring for patients with neurological diseases and conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and headache. The department includes approximately 30 experienced neurologists and over 20 neurologists in training. This group is assisted by professional and scientific experts in neuropsychology, neurophysiology, neurochemistry, neurobiology, speech pathology, and cognitive rehabilitation.
Divisions and clinics include:
Information and Referrals
For consultation or referral, or to obtain information on patients, please call UI Consult toll-free at 1-800-322-8442.
Consultations are enhanced by mailing or faxing pertinent clinical information in advance, if possible. Please address department and division addressed correspondence to:
Department of Neurology
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
200 Hawkins Drive
Iowa City, IA 52242-1009
Fax: 319-356-4505 (monitored weekdays)
Department Head (Interim)
Robert Rodnitzky, MD
319-356-3424
robert-rodnitzky@uiowa.edu
Divisions
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic
Director: Praful Kelkar, MD
The ALS Clinic serves patients and their families learning to cope with the challenges of living with ALS. As a joint program of the Department of Neurology and the UI Center for Disabilities and Development, the clinic provides health care and other services to improve quality of life:
- bracing, splinting
- exercises to prevent contractures and promote wellness
- medical examination
- monitoring of pulmonary function.
- nutrition counseling
- speech and swallowing evaluation
Other quality of life services include:
- alternative communication strategies and technologies
- assistance with choosing and adapting a wheelchair and other assistive devices, and with planning home accommodations
- information about funding assistance
- referral to a counselor to help the individual and the family cope with ALS
Autonomic Nervous System Clinic
Director: William T. Talman, MD
Sees patients with diseases affecting the autonomic nervous system and focuses on adverse effects on cardiovascular function with particular reference to control of blood pressure and cardiac rate. The clinic collaborates with urology gastroenterology, dermatology, neuroophthalmology, and cardiology.
Balance Disorders Clinic
Director: Deema Fattal, MD
Provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with dizziness and balance disorders. The clinic’s research helps improve our understanding of these disorders and leads to better treatments.
Behavioral Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience Division
Director:
Investigates disorders of higher nervous function with a primary research goal being the elucidation of neuroanatomical structures that underlie cognition and behavior. Current projects focus on the study of vision, memory, language, emotion, and decision-making. Neuroimaging techniques and experimental anatomy techniques are used to help understand these problems. There are separate laboratories within the division for the study of visual function, psychophysics, and psychophysiology. Research on the diagnosis and treatment of dementia is a special interest. The division’s permanent staff includes cognitive neuroscientists, experimental neuroanatomists, neuropsychologists, and a senior consultant.
Botulinum Toxin Treatment Clinic
Director: Robert Rodnitzky, MD
Specializes in the treatment of patients with movement disorders that lead to muscle spasms or abnormal postures of the limbs and body. Conditions treated are:
- Cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis)
- Cranial dystonia
- Drooling
- Essential tremor
- Focal limb dystonia
- Headache, migraine
- Spasticity due to stroke, multiple sclerosis, or other conditions
- Tourette's syndrome, tics
- Writer's cramp
Deep Brain Stimulation Clinic
Director: Ergun Uc, MD
Deep brain stimulation effectively calms the tremors of Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and other movement disorders. The procedure involves implanting a brain stimulator, similar to a pacemaker, into the appropriate region of the brain. The clinic’s staff collaborates closely with colleagues in the Department of Neurology.
EEG and EP
Director:Thoru Yamada, MD
The Electroencephalography/evoked potential (EEG) laboratory uses computerized averaging for the analysis and application of somatosensory, auditory, and visual evoked potentials. EEGs are used if a patient is experiencing blackouts or spells of various nature, seizures, headaches, depression, a sleep disorder, dizziness, problems with memory, or weakness of arms and legs.
EMG
Director: Jun Kimura, MD
Activities of the neuromuscular division are centered in the Electromyography (EMG) laboratory, where research focuses on development and application of clinical electrophysiologic techniques for the diagnosis of patients with neuromuscular disorders. EMG is performed if a patient is experiencing weakness in the arms, legs, hands, or face or to determine whether the cause relates to muscle disease, nerve disease, or disease of the junction between nerve and muscle.
Headache Clinic
Director: Lynne Geweke, MD
Provides diagnosis and comprehensive, patient management in close collaboration with the patient's personal physician.
Patients with unusual or concerning headaches could have head scans such as MRI or CT, and laboratory studies. After diagnosis, a menu of treatment options is available. Inpatient treatment often leads to a significant turnaround in pain control and medication use for patients who have particular difficulty with never-ending headaches or use of pain medications. Some individuals can, by referral, benefit from complementary and alternative treatments such as:
- Acupuncture
- Biofeedback
- Injection evaluation by anesthesia pain clinic
- Nutritional counseling
- Pain psychology or psychiatry evaluation
- Physical therapy
- Referral to appropriate specialists in other fields
- Relaxation training
Iowa Comprehensive Epilepsy Program (Video-EEG)
Director: Mark A. Granner, MD
This multi-disciplinary program—which includes sub-specialists in neurology, neurosurgery, and pediatrics—serves patients who have epilepsy and related conditions. The program’s experts include psychiatrists, nurses, pharmacologists, neuroradiologists, and social services specialists. The program diagnoses, educates, and treats patients with:
- Epilepsy, including generalized and partial seizure types
- Non-epileptic seizures, including isolated or recurrent symptomatic seizures and psychogenic seizures (pseudoseizures).
- Other undiagnosed paroxysmal (episodic) events
- Undesirable side effects of anti-epileptic medication
An accurate diagnosis frequently requires making an actual recording of a patient’s seizures in the specialized hospital video-EEG monitoring unit, which then allows determination of the best treatment options. Video-EEG monitoring, performed for either outpatients (hours long) or inpatients (days long), is a specialized form of EEG testing in which typical events are recorded. This permits the physicians to learn more about the patient’s seizures by directly viewing them. If epilepsy surgery is being considered, video-EEG monitoring is a vital piece of the puzzle for ensuring the correct diagnosis and allowing an accurate estimation of the seizure onset region in the brain.
Memory Disorders Clinic
Co-Directors: Thomas J. Grabowski, MD, and Steven W. Anderson, PhD
Provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with conditions affecting memory and cognition such as Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. The faculty’s research commitment includes clinical trials that improve our understanding and treatment of patients with these conditions.
Movement Disorders Clinic
Director: Robert L. Rodnitzky, MD
Patients with movement disorders exhibit abnormal involuntary movements that lead to shaking, jerking, or twisting of the involved body parts, thereby disturbing walking and other functions important for daily life. Besides education and research, the clinic provides multidisciplinary care for patients with the following disorders:
- Dystonia
- Essential tremor
- Hemifacial spasm
- Hereditary ataxias
- Huntington's disease and other choreas
- Medication induced movement disorders, tardive dyskinesia
- Myoclonus and startle syndromes
- Normal pressure hydrocephalus
- Parkinson's disease and related disorders
- Stiff-person syndrome
- Tourette's syndrome and other tic disorders
- Wilson's disease
Multiple Sclerosis Clinic
Director: E. Torage Shivapour, M.D.
Provides comprehensive evaluation for the diagnosis of patients with MS. Treatment options are thoroughly explored and assistance is provided to deal with the special needs of persons with MS and their family members.
Neurology Consultative Outreach Clinics
Shekar Raman, MD
Outreach clinics in the Iowa communities of Sigourney and Grinnell run all day Tuesdays. They function as general neurology clinics, with the attending neurologist providing consultation, educational instruction and materials, and other support services.
Neuromuscular Clinic
Director: Praful Kelkar, MD
Provides comprehensive evaluation and care for patients with peripheral nervous system disorders. The Muscular Dystrophy Association has designated this service as an Adult MDA clinic and regularly assists patients and their families in obtaining care.
Neuro-ophthalmology
Director: Randy Kardon, MD, PhD
The departments of neurology and ophthalmology care for patients in the neuro-ophthalmology unit. Special interests include thyroid ophthalmology, pseudotumor cerebri, and new methods of sensory visual testing.
Neuropsychology and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Laboratories
Director: Daniel Tranel, PhD
Patients are evaluated in the neuropsychology laboratory if they have experienced injury to the brain because of an accident or illness, or have a memory disorder or other thinking-related disabilities. The clinic also evaluates patients coping with medical symptoms, injuries, or illness.
Outpatient rehabilitation services are available for adults with cognitive, emotional, or behavioral problems resulting from traumatic brain injury, stroke, dementia or other diseases affecting the brain. Treatment is individualized and services often are coordinated with other hospital and community rehabilitation programs.
Sleep Disorders Center
Director: Mark E. Dyken, MD
A clinic within the Department of Neurology and the five-bed sleep disorders center provides evaluation and clinical care for patients with a wide variety of sleep disorders. The center is fully accredited by the American Sleep Disorders Association and is staffed by physicians and technologists who are board certified in sleep disorder medicine. The center is incorporated into a general neurology unit that provides nursing support.
Patients who can benefit from a sleep disorders evaluation are those experiencing:
- insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness
- narcolepsy
- nocturnal myoclonus (periodic limb movements in sleep)
- parasomnias, such as somnambulism (sleep walking), night terrors
- REM behavior disorder
- rhythmic movement disorder (head banging)
- seizures in sleep
- sleep apnea and snoring
Stroke Clinic
Director: Harold P. Adams, MD
Delivers the region’s most comprehensive care to stop strokes, minimize lingering effects, and prevent recurrence.
The clinic’s staff includes a UI Hospitals and Clinics neurologist led a national effort to update the guidelines for treating patients affected by ischemic strokes. Other stroke specialists helped develop important clinical instruments that are used by physicians worldwide—including a tool that documents the severity of stroke and a tool that helps categorize the causes of brain infarction.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) clinic
Director:
The Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS) is a therapeutic option for selected epilepsy patients (generally those for whom medicines have not worked, and who are not candidates for or choose not to have epilepsy surgery). Approval for VNS therapy follows a thorough evaluation that includes a clinic visit, imaging studies (usually MRI), EEG, and video-EEG recording of the patient’s seizures. As with epilepsy surgery, this information is reviewed at the Epilepsy Surgery Case Conference to ensure VNS therapy is offered to those patients most likely to benefit from it. After surgery is performed to place the VNS device, follow-up visits are made in the clinic for check-ups and device programming.
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