Neurology and women's health: Stroke
Stroke, a leading killer of men and women, kills twice as many women as does breast cancer. It also brings its own unique set of health concerns for women. At the most basic level, the symptoms of stroke differ between men and women, with women more likely to experience symptoms still known as "non-traditional" because they are less studied than the most common symptoms in men. Fortunately, there is much that women can do, both to reduce their likelihood of stroke and, for women who experience a stroke, to reduce the impact stroke has on their lives. Nada El-Husseini, MD, MHS, spoke about how stroke affects women, both directly and indirectly, across the lifetime. Read more.

Inflammation and presure-sensing leads to "feed-forward" loop in osteoarthritis
An unfortunate biological “feed-forward” loop drives cartilage cells in an arthritic joint to actually contribute to progression of the disease, say researchers at Duke University and Washington University in Saint Louis. Pain researcher and mechanobiologist Wolfgang Liedtke, MD, PhD, partnered with Farshid Guilak, PhD to examine the activity of pressure-sensitive ion channels in cartilage. Read more.

This Week at Duke: Narrative medicine, low-grade gliomas, meurotrauma, and more
Monday starts with an M&M conference for geriatrics grand rounds and descision-making in neurotrauma for palliative care grand rounds at noon. Sneha Mantri, MD, MS and spinocerebellar ataxia patient Dana Creighton lead a narrative medicine discussion on Tuesday; a neurobiology seminar on thalamic circuits for vision is scheduled for the same time. Katy Peters, MD, PhD, will lead our grand rounds with a discussion on treating low-grade gliomas with a case presentation by resident Ben Groves, MD. Check the Calendar of Events section for more details.

Ashley Miller, MD
As a medical student, Ashley Miller, MD, received a piece of advice that she took to heart: choose a field that you enjoy reading about, since you’ll be reading about that subject for the rest of your career. Several years later, she’s still enjoying reading about and practicing sleep medicine as a fellow within the Duke Neurology Department. For this week’s “spotlight” interview, Miller talks to us about being able to improve the quality of life for her patients, her future plans for treating adults and children with sleep disorder, and enjoying practicing the flugelhorn, lap swimming, and time at her local church when she’s not at work. Read more.