The Massachusetts General Hospital Ataxia Center holds a noon conference on the 1st, 3rd, (and 5th) Thursday of every month, from noon to 1 pm, Eastern Standard Time (Boston). These conferences went virtual at the start of the global pandemic in the spring of 2020 and have become a hub for ongoing consideration through the year of disorders of the cerebellum. We have adopted an old-fashioned approach, targeted to the Ataxia Fellows, commencing usually with a live case presentation and patient examination followed by discussion of the clinical and basic science. After the conference we follow-up with relevant articles about the topics discussed, and usually make the recording of the conference available to attendees.
We are very pleased to be joined by clinicians and investigators at all levels of training and experience in clinical neurology and the basic science of the cerebellum from other sites in the USA and internationally, and invite all those interested in the ataxias and disorders of the cerebellum to participate with us in this ongoing conversation about cerebellar clinical phenomenology and neurobiology.
Topics in the 2020-2021 schedule included sessions on eliciting the history, performing the examination, neuroimaging in ataxias, multiple system atrophy of the cerebellar type, autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix Saguenay, Niemann-Pick type C, posterior fossa arachnoid cysts, the cerebellar form of progressive supranuclear palsy, immune ataxias, lithium toxicity and cerebellar toxic agents, unusual ataxias from the São Paulo clinic, cerebellar cognition and its applications in children, fragile X associated tremor ataxia syndrome, spinocerebellar ataxia type 2, spinocerebellar ataxia type 3, CANVAS, differential diagnosis of ataxias in children, cerebellar disruptions and genetic malformations in children, and Langerhans' cell histiocytosis.
We have some extraordinary cases in the MGH Ataxia Center registry and we look forward to learning more about these cases with you in the months to come. If you would like to be placed on the mailing list for these conferences, please contact our laboratory and project manager, Jason MacMore.