Jiten Mistry misplaced his driving licence at the Belfast meeting. If anyone picked it up, please could they contact him at jitenmistry@nhs.net.
Queen Square Annual Update in Neuromuscular Disorders
This course will be held from Wednesday 13th May to Friday 15th May in the Clinical Neuroscience Lecture Theatre, Lower ground, 33 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG
Applications are invited for 1 year fellowships funded by the Guarantors of Brain. These fellowships provide bridging salary support to early career clinicians based in the UK prior to obtaining a research fellowship. Further details can be found HERE
New NHSE commissioning policies for rituximab and IVIg
We are pleased to announce that, largely due to the efforts of our president Prof Lunn, rituximab is now approved for treatment of IgM paraproteinaemic demyelinating peripheral neuropathy (anti-MAG phenotype, with or without anti-MAG antibodies): 1910-rituximab-for-treatment-of-PDPN-policy-v2.pdf (england.nhs.uk). Whilst we have hitherto been able to treat some patients with rituximab by sending them to a haematologist, this was not possible if the bone marrow showed insufficient evidence of underlying lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. These patients can now be treated, regardless of bone marrow result, either by you or by your friendly haematologist, under the new commissioning guidance.
Also thanks to Prof Lunn (alongside non-neurology colleagues), the updated IVIg commissioning policy is now available: Commissioning-Criteria-Policy-for-the-use-of-Ig-Version-Finala.pdf (mdsas.com). Newly commissioned diagnoses of relevance to peripheral nerve now include acute autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy, and neuromyotonia.