Movement disorders

Prof. François Vingerhoets, Prof. Bogdan Draganski

The themes of research concern:

• Parkinsonism:
  - Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (non-motor symptoms)
  - Parkinson-plus syndromes such as Multiple System Atrophy and PSP
• other motor-neuron diseases: ALS, Tourette’s syndrome, dystonia, conversion syndromes etc.

These conditions are studied from the perspective of neurophysiology, MRI scanning using advanced modalities (the Neuroimaging Lab’s main area of research), genetics, with the aim of earlier and more specific diagnosis, establishing prognostic indexes, monitoring disease evolution and therapy responses.

The functional investigation of these disorders and the types of treatment include study protocols which require the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) (collaboration with Dr D. Benninger), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) and advanced methods of focal brain radiation therapy by Gamma-Knife (collaboration with Prof. M. Levivier) and pharmacological studies.

Publications

• Vilariño-Güell et al. VPS35 mutations in Parkinson disease. Am J Hum Genet. 2011 89:162-7.
• Draganski et al., Multispectral brain morphometry in Tourette syndrome persisting into adulthood. Brain. 2010 133:3661-75.
• Draganski B, Bhatia KP. Brain structure in movement disorders: a neuroimaging perspective. Curr Opin Neurol. 2010 23:413-9.
• Poewe W, Antonini A, Zijlmans JC, Burkhard PR, Vingerhoets F. Levodopa in the treatment of Parkinson's disease: an old drug still going strong. Clin Interv Aging. 2010 5:229-38.
• Aybek S et al. Hippocampal atrophy predicts conversion to dementia after STN-DBS in Parkinson's disease. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2009 Aug;15(7):521-4.
• Aybeket al. Hysteria: an historical entity, a psychiatric condition or a neurological disease? Rev Med Suisse. 2008 4:1151-2, 1154-6