BrainWaves: A Neurology Podcast

By Jim Siegler, MD | Neurologist | Father | Friend of dogs

What's BrainWaves: A Neurology Podcast about?

BrainWaves is an academic audio podcast whose mission is to educate medical providers through clinical cases and topical reviews in neurology and medicine. Follow us on Twitter @brainwavesaudio, or just tune in every Thursday for the latest shows! **NOT FOR CLINICAL DECISION MAKING**

Download our free app to listen on your phone

BrainWaves: A Neurology Podcast episodes:

10.22.2020
#173 Matching during the COVID-19 pandemic
This week on the program, we bring to you a special episode on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the neurology 2021 match--and potentially MANY subsequent matches. Jim Siegler is joined by the Assistant Program Director of the Cooper...
10.15.2020
#83 Halloween Special: Zombies in neurology
Halloween is one of the most exciting and festive holidays, but this year I imagine many of us are going to spend it indoors. To help pass the time, enjoy this seasonal special about the neurologic manifestations of zombie-ism. Today's...
09.17.2020
#171 High-convexity tight sulci
You know the triad for normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Wet, wobbly, and wacky. And you have probably heard of the Evan’s index—the relative proportion of the lateral ventricles in reference to the inner table of the skull. But you might...
07.23.2020
#168 (Mis)understanding the locked-in state
The locked-in syndrome is a rare clinical consequence following many types of neurologic injury. In general, the locked-in patient is fully paralyzed, with perhaps minimal function of the fingers, the eyes, or the mouth. What's more, the gross motor dysfunction...
06.11.2020
#165 How the other half lives
On rounds, I sometimes joke that the two most important organs in the body are the right and left hemisphere. Only one of many, terrible, dad jokes my poor residents and students have to endure. But what happens when one...
05.14.2020
#163 What’s the buzz?
Can you hear that too? You can’t? Well, that doesn’t mean I’m having auditory hallucinations. It could just be tinnitus, which describes the irritating sound of ringing, buzzing, clicking, or hissing that affect 10-20% of the world's population. But is...
04.30.2020
#162 Just because you couldn't attend the AAN's annual meeting...
It’s 2020, and for the first time in its 72-year history, the American Academy of Neurology has cancelled its annual meeting because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that does not mean we (BrainWaves producers, not the AAN) can’t provide a...
04.16.2020
#161 Rule out spinal dural AV fistula
As my wife and I are raising our 9-month old daughter, and she is eating more solid food, I can’t help but think about how important it is she keep an open mind to new food groups. But being open...
04.02.2020
#160 Pluses and minuses of perfusion imaging
Perfusion imaging employs concepts that date back to the early 1830s, and it leverages hardware and software that emerged around the same time at multidetector helical CT scans. But it has only become popular in recent years for thrombectomy decision-making....
03.29.2020
Update: Musings on COVID-19
Imagine what it would have been like, to have lived in 1918. Spanish influenza killed approximately 3% of the world’s population. Other than the world war, international travel was fairly limited. There was no social media. No flu vaccine. No...
03.19.2020
#159 The pupil can be a great teacher
They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Well, maybe. They also happen to be the first organ we (perhaps, unknowingly) examine whenever we encounter a patient. This week on the program, we build on the prior episode...
03.05.2020
#158 Teaching through clinical cases: A primer on proximal weakness
Generalized weakness is a common complaint. Much of the time, we as neurologists don’t even see these patients in the hospital or the clinic. But more often than not, “generalized” weakness may be the only way a patient describes difficulty...
02.27.2020
#80 The meningitis that keeps coming back: 2020 update
This week on BrainWaves, we're revisiting the 2017 episode on recurrent meningitis featuring Dr. Jon Rosenberg (New York Presbyterian-Columbia). While we may not have made much headway in the treatment of these patients since the original show came out, we...
02.20.2020
#157 Checkpoint inhibitor neurotoxicity
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized cancer treatment. Unlike chemotherapy, which essentially includes cellular toxins that can cause widespread and unnecessary tissue damage, checkpoint inhibitors are used to train the body’s natural immune system to fight off the cancer. And while...
01.23.2020
#155 Teaching through clinical cases: Handed the diagnosis
In a patient with isolated, progressive hand numbness and weakness, there is a much to be learned about the clinical exam. Often, its all you need. This week, Dr. Aakriti Kothiwal (Cooper University Hospital) presents this week's clinical case and...
01.09.2020
#154 All that restricts does not infarct
The common teaching is that restricted diffusion on MRI indicates stroke—acute cerebral infarction. When, more specifically, the changes on DWI and ADC indicate impairment in the random movement of water molecules in a given tissue. With slower movement, as in...
12.26.2019
Best of BrainWaves 2019
2019 was a big year. The year of the Mueller report. The American college admissions scandals. Brexit. But it was also the year the US Women's team won the World Cup, and lobbied for the equal pay of women and...
12.05.2019
#10 Cryptogenic stroke: 2019 update
In 2016, when we first launched the BrainWaves podcast, cryptogenic stroke was a poorly understood concept. 3 years later, it remains poorly understood. But we are making progress. In this week's update of episode 10, we review the progress that...
11.28.2019
#152 It’s not over yet…part 2: Post-publication peer-review
Peer review prior to publication of medical data dates back to the 9th century CE, but has only really gained steam in the past 70 or 80 years. Ideally, peer review would serve as an initial filter for data that...
11.14.2019
#151 It’s not over yet…part 1: Opening Pandora’s black box
The FDA label for ACTEMRA (tocilizumab)--the first medication approved for use in giant cell arteritis in 2017--is 40 pages long. Of the information provided in this document, which includes important dosing information, dose adjustments based on leukocyte count, clinical trial...
10.31.2019
Halloween special 2019: Young Frankenstein
This year, Halloween falls on a Thursday. So we've put together a special episode to celebrate it! But first...a question: What do Frankenstein's monster, Spock, and Rick Deckard all have in common? Find out in this week's episode of BrainWaves....
10.17.2019
#150 Patient narrative part 2: It started with back pain…
College is a tough time for any kid. But it should also be exciting. Then to experience the freedoms of young adulthood, only later to face the horrifying reality of a progressive neurodegenerative condition...it's not something anyone should experience. In...
10.03.2019
#149 Patient narrative part 1: The world’s disability
Sara Henya would have you recognize her for her music, not her malady. While she may have Tourette Syndrome, she refuses to let it define her. In this week's episode of BrainWaves, we're launching a two part series featuring people...
09.26.2019
#34 The ALS multi-disciplinary clinic
This week on the program, our earlier episode on the multidisciplinary care of ALS patients gets a face lift. Since it originally aired in 2016, there have been several important advances in the treatment of these patients--including the first FDA...
09.19.2019
#148 Teaching through clinical cases: A curious case of infectious encephalitis
In this week's clinical case, Dr. Mike Bradshaw (Chicago Medical School and Billings Clinic) walks us through the case of a young woman with HSV encephalitis. With a twist. SPOILER ALERT: If you don't want to know the answer, DON'T...
09.12.2019
Quanta: PREVENTing relapses of Aqp4-Ab NMO
We just used clinical trial data regarding eculizumab in myasthenia gravis as an example of how to critically appraise the literature, and in this week's program...MORE data on the efficacy of eculizumab in another neurological condition. This week on BrainWaves,...
09.05.2019
#147 I wonder: p-value
One study shows that 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week can reduce your risk of squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, p=0.001. (Let's pretend this is true). What does this mean? Well, let's start by asking the question, how...
08.08.2019
#145 Astroglia and Alzheimer’s disease
Clean up on aisle 4! Or should it be IL-4? In this week's installment of the BrainWaves Podcast, we submerge ourselves into the microscopic environment of Alzheimer's pathology. It's interesting, it's messy, and whoever made this mess is also responsible...
07.11.2019
#143 Teaching through clinical cases: A young woman with vision loss
In this week's Teaching through Clinical Cases, Dr. Olga Rosenveld Thon (Drexel) walks us through the challenging management decisions that emerge in the care of women with demyelinating disease. Why are women prone to multiple sclerosis? How do pregnancy, breastfeeding,...
06.13.2019
#141 The heat of the moment
Things are heating up for BrainWaves this week as we explore an exciting new topic in our digital curriculum: Heat-related illness. From the causes to the manifestation of the various causes of hyperthermia which can ultimately lead to circulatory collapse....
06.06.2019
#84 Neonatal abstinence syndrome
The first wave of the opioid crisis began in 1991 when physicians began to overprescribe narcotic analgesics for pain. Eventually, addiction led to abuse and the fatality rates began to climb. In response, the US government cracked down on narcotic...
05.30.2019
#140 Of measles and men
Since January 1, 2019, there have been nearly 900 confirmed US cases of measles across 24 states. This is 10 times greater than the number of cases in the US 3 years ago, and it is the largest outbreak the...
05.16.2019
#139 The DAWN of a new age for stroke treatment
It would be an understatement to say that endovascular thrombectomy has revolutionized acute stroke management. As of 2018, the American Heart Association recommends treatment up to 24 hours after time last seen normal for select patients. This week on the...
04.25.2019
#137 Neurologists as medical actuaries
For patients who survive cardiopulmonary arrest, but do not wake up, neurologists are called to the bedside to prognosticate. And the question of 'How much will this patient recover?' is not unlike 'What is the benefit of aggressive therapy to...
04.18.2019
#136 Iatrogenesis
In medicine, less is more. Sometimes. In this week's program, Dr. Igor Rybinnik of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School shares what he's learned when it comes to overtreating patients. IF YOU'RE TAKING YOUR NEUROLOGY BOARDS, and not sure...
04.11.2019
#26 Considerations in the management of women with epilepsy
When it comes to managing patients with epilepsy, there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. And it would be wrong to assume you could treat a woman the same way you would treat a man. There are a number of special considerations...
04.04.2019
#135 Brain food
A low salt diet can reduce your risk of hypertension. A low carb diet can reduce your risk of diabetes. But is there a diet out there which can lower your risk of neurologic disease? Specifically, dementia? The answer is...maybe?...
03.14.2019
#54 To thymectomize or Not to thymectomize...That is the question
In 2016, we heard the results of the MGTX trial--a pivotal investigation that demonstrated the efficacy of thymectomy for select patients with non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis. This spring, we saw the long-term follow-up data from the MGTX investigators. In this week's...
03.07.2019
#133 The sacred disease
Before it was called epilepsy, it was a falling sickness. A disturbance of consciousness summoned by magic or demonic possession. Although it is less of a mystery today, the Sacred Disease is one neurological condition that continues to pique our...
02.21.2019
#132 Teaching through clinical cases: Chasing the dragon
Heroin was originally marketed as a cough suppressant in 1898. (Obviously, people have discovered more uses for it since then.) One hundred years later, it has paved the way for a worldwide drug abuse epidemic. Dr. Mike Rubenstein presents this...
02.13.2019
#131 Organ transplantation part 2: Non-infectious neurologic complications
In the second half of our two-part series on complications of organ transplantation, Dr. Raj Dhar (Neurocritical Care, Washington University in St. Louis) discusses his experience managing the non-infectious complications of organ transplantation--from drug toxicities to multi-disciplinary medical care. Produced...
01.31.2019
#130 Organ transplantation part 1: Neuroinfectious complications
There is no question that organ transplantation has saved thousands of lives in recent years from fatal conditions. And over time, we've become more and more successful at maintaining the integrity of the graft and increasing longevity of organ transplant...
01.24.2019
#36 Teaching through clinical cases: Acute vestibular syndrome
In 2016, Dr. Ali Hamedani summarized the basic principles underlying a neurologic evaluation for acute dizziness--the acute vestibular syndrome. We've remastered the prior show, and added in a few new factoids for ya in this 2019 remake. Enjoy! Produced by...
01.17.2019
#129 Neurologic complications of pregnancy
For such an thrilling time in a woman's life, pregnancy can be a frightening experience for some. As a physician, I'm always a little more on edge when dealing with these patients. This week on BrainWaves, Dr. Jonathan Edlow (Emergency...
01.03.2019
#128 Teaching through Clinical Cases: Thrombophilia testing
For young patients who have no reason to clot, it's good to know which diagnostic tests you should send, when you should send them, and how they can be erroneously interpreted. Dr. Kristy Yuan, a vascular neurologist from the University...
12.27.2018
#57 Neurostimulants part 1: CAFFEINE!
As I'm sitting in a coffee shop in upstate New York this holiday season, procrastinating on the various papers that need writing, bills that need paying, and Christmas cards that need writing, I can't help but feel comforted by the...
12.20.2018
#127 HD part 2: Current and emerging therapeutics
This week, part 2 of our 2-part primer on Huntington Disease. Treatment. From tried-and-true therapies to the latest-and-greatest compounds being studied in clinical trials. Enjoy! Produced by James E. Siegler and Stephen Aradi. Music by Mike Durek, Jesse Spillane, Lee...
12.13.2018
Quanta: Lessons learned from Dr. Kinnier Wilson (1878-1937)
Want to make a name for yourself? Declare yourself chief of something. Or chief of many things, as Dr. S. A. Kinnier Wilson did. This week on the podcast, we commemorate his legacy and his commitment to neurology. Produced by...
12.06.2018
#126 HD part 1: Differential diagnosis and clinical features
You may be able to recognize chorea. But what does it make you think of besides Huntington Disease? In this two part series, we'll cover the clinical manifestations, differential diagnosis, and management of Huntington Disease. In part 1, Dr. Travis...
11.22.2018
#125 No pressure
Of the "reversible" causes of dementia, normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) may be the most controversial. But there is something to be said about how surgical intervention alters the physiology of patients who present with gait impairment, ventriculomegaly, and normal CSF...

What's BrainWaves: A Neurology Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

BrainWaves: A Neurology Podcast episodes:

#173 Matching during the COVID-19 pandemic

#83 Halloween Special: Zombies in neurology

#171 High-convexity tight sulci

#168 (Mis)understanding the locked-in state

#165 How the other half lives

#163 What’s the buzz?

#162 Just because you couldn't attend the AAN's annual meeting...

#161 Rule out spinal dural AV fistula

#160 Pluses and minuses of perfusion imaging

Update: Musings on COVID-19

#159 The pupil can be a great teacher

#158 Teaching through clinical cases: A primer on proximal weakness

#80 The meningitis that keeps coming back: 2020 update

#157 Checkpoint inhibitor neurotoxicity

#155 Teaching through clinical cases: Handed the diagnosis

#154 All that restricts does not infarct

Best of BrainWaves 2019

#10 Cryptogenic stroke: 2019 update

#152 It’s not over yet…part 2: Post-publication peer-review

#151 It’s not over yet…part 1: Opening Pandora’s black box

Halloween special 2019: Young Frankenstein

#150 Patient narrative part 2: It started with back pain…

#149 Patient narrative part 1: The world’s disability

#34 The ALS multi-disciplinary clinic

#148 Teaching through clinical cases: A curious case of infectious encephalitis

Quanta: PREVENTing relapses of Aqp4-Ab NMO

#147 I wonder: p-value

#145 Astroglia and Alzheimer’s disease

#143 Teaching through clinical cases: A young woman with vision loss

#141 The heat of the moment

#84 Neonatal abstinence syndrome

#140 Of measles and men

#139 The DAWN of a new age for stroke treatment

#137 Neurologists as medical actuaries

#136 Iatrogenesis

#26 Considerations in the management of women with epilepsy

#135 Brain food

#54 To thymectomize or Not to thymectomize...That is the question

#133 The sacred disease

#132 Teaching through clinical cases: Chasing the dragon

#131 Organ transplantation part 2: Non-infectious neurologic complications

#130 Organ transplantation part 1: Neuroinfectious complications

#36 Teaching through clinical cases: Acute vestibular syndrome

#129 Neurologic complications of pregnancy

#128 Teaching through Clinical Cases: Thrombophilia testing

#57 Neurostimulants part 1: CAFFEINE!

#127 HD part 2: Current and emerging therapeutics

Quanta: Lessons learned from Dr. Kinnier Wilson (1878-1937)

#126 HD part 1: Differential diagnosis and clinical features

#125 No pressure