Specialization
Clinical neurophysiology, Artificial intelligence, Electromyography, Neuromuscular ultrasound, Inflammatory and hereditary neuropathies, Inflammatory myopathies
Focus of research
The Department of Neurology performs clinical and translational research within several research themes: infection & inflammation, neuromuscular disorders, cerebrovascular disorders, movement disorders & deep brain stimulation, cognitive disorders and neuro-oncology. The themes are imbedded in the nine translational research programs of Amsterdam Neuroscience, the research institute of neuroscience investigators in the Amsterdam area. All staff members of the Department of Neurology are involved in research and collaborate within Amsterdam Neuroscience, with other academic and non-academic hospitals, and with international research groups.
Infection and inflammation. We perform clinical translational research in the field of neurological infections & inflammation. We perform prospective clinical cohort studies, randomized clinical trials, and experimental research, combining our clinical expertise with groundbreaking, translational approaches using clinical data, human samples, next generation sequencing, in vitro techniques, and mouse models in the era's of bacterial meningitis & encephalitis, infections after stroke, septic encephalopathy, and inflammatory diseases of peripheral nerves and muscles.
Neuromuscular disorders. Our neuromuscular centre is a NFU (Nederlandse federatie van universitaire medische centra) and ERN (European reference network) accredited center for neuromuscular diseases in general, and idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, poliomyelitis, and inflammatory polyneuropathies and hereditary neuropathies in particular. Inflammatory diseases of peripheral nerves and muscles are the main focus of our neuromuscular research-line, within the research area neuro-infection and inflammation. The immune mediated neuropathies (e.g. Guillain-Barré syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculopathy and multifocal motor neuropathy) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (e.g. dermatomysositis) are the specific diseases of interest. This research is patient-driven and translational. More specific, clinical trials, cohort studies and studies investigating immunological and genomic characterization of nerve and muscle inflammation are performed. From these studies we try to arrive at clinically relevant biomarkers of disease activity and predictors of response. Improving the diagnostic and therapeutic options available to these patients are thus the starting point. The prevention of nerve and muscle damage and the improvement of the regenerative capacity are some of the key areas for the near future.
I am combining my position at the clinical neurophysiology with a neuromuscular outpatient clinic. Research topics are improving the diagnostic process for inflammatory neuropathies (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculopathy, multifocal motor neuropathy and vasculitis) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (myositis).
My research emphasis is on improving the diagnostic and prognostic yield of neurophysiological techniques, including nerve conduction studies, needle electromyography, nerve & muscle ultrasound, with the support of artificial intelligence.
As one of the main investigators I am involved in a health care evaluation study: in a large national multicenter randomized clinical trial we are comparing initial surgical treatment with initial cortiocosteroid injection for carpal tunnel syndrome.