The Shadow-Side of the Neurological Evaluation

Paving the Long and Winding Road for New Medicines in Neurology

“…As neurologists, we are trained in the art of accurately diagnosing and monitoring patients' disease course through an almost ritualized and time-proofed set of observations and tests, and rightly judge the exact performance of a neurological examination as one of the centerpieces that defines our profession. 15,16 Ancillary tests -imaging, electrophysiology, CSF profiling -are deemed important but not substitutive. However, these tests were not developed for use in clinical trials, and mostly do not have the required statistical performance characteristics; additionally, they are evaluated only sporadically during studies which further reduces our ability to detect the true effects of new drugs.…”