Inflammatory and Autoimmune Disorders of the Nervous System in Children

Russell C. Dale is a paediatric neurologist and researcher in inflammatory and autoimmune disorders of the central nervous system at Children’s Hospital at Westmead, University of Sydney, Australia. His main interests are inflammatory mechanisms, particularly novel auto-antibodies, in immune-mediated CNS disorders. He is part of the International Pediatric MS Study Group committee and has active research interests in paediatric CNS demyelination and autoimmune movement disorders. He has published in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Medicine, Lancet Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Brain, Neurology and Movement Disorders. Russell received the British Paediatric Neurology Association junior investigator award in 2003. He is an invited speaker at international conferences related to his interests in paediatric movement disorders and neuroinflammatory disorders. He appeared in the BBC documentary on ‘Encephalitis lethargica’ in 2004 and has been interviewed for a number of newspaper articles. Angela Vincent is Emeritus Professor of Neuroimmunology in the University of Oxford and an Emeritus Fellow of Somerville College.  She was formerly head of the Department of Clinical Neurology and head of the Neurosciences Group at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. She continues as an Honorary Consultant in Immunology and runs the clinical neuroimmunology service, an international referral centre for neurological antibodies. She collaborates with neurologists worldwide. She is best known for identifying new targets for autoantibodies in neuromuscular junction disorders and in non-paraneoplastic brain diseases, and for establishing diagnostic assays for these conditions. She has received several awards and honours (honorary PhD University of Bergen, honorary FRCP, FMedSci) and given many named lectures.  She is a past president of the International Society of Neuroimmunology and an Associate Editor of Brain.

NEUROIMMUNOLOGY CONCEPTS INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Russell C. Dale (Australia) and Angela Vincent (UK)

INFLAMMATION AND AUTOIMMUNITY: A NERVOUS SYSTEM PERSPECTIVE Fabienne Brilot (Australia)

CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS

DEMYELINATING SYNDROMES

OVERVIEW OF NEW INTERNATIONAL DEFINITIONS FOR CNS DEMYELINATION SYNDROMES IN CHILDREN Russell C. Dale (UK) and Silvia Tenembaum (Argentina)

ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS Silvia Tenembaum (Argentina) and Tanuja Chitnis (USA)

CHILDHOOD MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS Yann Mikaeloff, Russell C. Dale (Australia) and Marc Tardieu (France)

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: AN ADULTS PERSPECTIVE Gavin Giovannoni (UK)

TRANSVERSE MYELITIS Michael Levy and Douglas Kerr (USA)

OPTIC NEURITIS IN CHILDREN Brenda Banwell and Raymond Buncic (Canada)

REGIONAL NEUROINFLAMMATORY SYNDROMES

SYDENHAM’S CHOREA Francisco Cardoso (Brazil)

PAEDIATRIC AUTOIMMUNE NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS ASSOCIATED WITH STREPTOCOCCAL INFECTION (PANDAS) Tanya Murphy and Ana Segarra (USA)

OPSOCLONUS MYCLONUS SYNDROME Michael Pranzatelli (USA)

OTHER IMMUNE-MEDIATED EXTRAPYRAMIDAL MOVEMENT DISORDERS Russell C. Dale (Australia)

POST-INFECTIOUS ATAXIA AND CEREBELLITIS Deepak Gill (Australia)

RASMUSSEN ENCEPHALITIS Christian Bien (Germany) and Jan Bauer (Austria)

SYSTEMIC AUTOIMMUNE DISORDERS AND VASCULITIS

NEUROPSYCHIATRIC MANIFESTATIONSD OF CHILDHOOD SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS AND ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID SYNDROME Liora Harel (Israel) and Emily von Scheven (USA)

CEREBRAL VASCULITIS Jorina Elbers and Susanne Benseler (Canada)

MACROPHAGE ACTIVATION SYNDROMES Marc Tardieu and Nizar Mahlaoui (France)

ORPHAN NEURO-INFLAMMATORY DISORDERS

AICARDI-GOUTIERES SYNDROME AND RELATED DISORDERS John B.P. Stephenson and Yanick J. Crow (UK)

NEONATAL ONSET MULTISYSTEMJ INFLAMMATORY DISORDER (NOMID)/CHRONIC INFANTILE NEUROLOGICAL CUTANEOUS SYNDROME (CINCA) Simon R. Ling (Singapore) and P. Ian Andrews (Australia)

FOLATE RECEPTOR AUTOIMMUNITY IN CEREBRAL FOLATE DEFICIENCY Vincent T. Ramaekers (Germany) and Edward V. Quadros (USA)

EMERGING CONCEPTS

INFLAMMATORY MECHANISMS IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS Ming Lim, Mylvaganam Jeyakumar, and Francis Platt (UK)

GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR AUTOANTIBODIES IN NEUROLOGICAL SYNDROMES Mia Levite and Yonatan Ganor (Israel)

AUTOIMMUNE CHANNELOPATHIES: LESSONS FROM ADULT NEUROLOGY

PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS

CHILDHOOD AUTOIMMUNE MYASTHENIA Jeremy Parr, Sandeep Jayawant, Camilla Buckley, and Angela Vincent (UK)

GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME AND CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY DEMYELINATING POLYNEUROPATHY IN CHILDHOOD Monique M. Ryan, John D. Pollard, and Robert A. Ouvrier (Australia)

DERMATOMYOSITIS AND POLYMYOSITIS Elizabeth Stringer and Brian M. Feldman (Canada)

INFLAMMATORY MECHANISMS IN GENETIC NEUROMUSCULAR DISORDERS James G. Tidball and Michelle Wehling-Henriks (USA)