Clinical Neurology: A Primer

Review
"Clinical Neurology: A Primer by Peter Gates is a unique educational text which has been specifically written for students of neurology and non-neurologists... a text of enormous utility to medical students, postgraduate students and importantly teachers of those students. Non-neurology clinicians would also find this text illuminating."

"It makes neurology highly accessible and allows any reader to integrate clinically relevant neuroanatomy with clinical neurological presentations in order to make diagnoses confidently"

Internal Medicine Journal © 2010

"Associate Professor Peter Gates, neurologist at Geelong Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Victoria, has come up with a gem... The book is aimed at medical students, young doctors and general practitioners; however, clinicians and neurologists should also find it useful."

Medical Journal of Australia, 21 February 2011

"The strength of this book is the perspective of experience brought to each topic, driven by clinical problem solving. Instead of bland lists that can be got from anywhere, the approach is to prioritize differential diagnosis, and encourage lateral thinking about the primary complaint."

Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, 2011

Table of Contents

1 Clinically oriented neuroanatomy: ‘Meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude’

2 The neurological history

3 Neurological examination of the limbs

4 The cranial nerves and understanding the brainstem: The ‘Rule of 4’

5 The cerebral hemispheres and cerebellum: Assessment of higher cognitive function

6 After the history and examination, what next?

7 Episodic disturbances of neurological function

8 Seizures and epilepsy

9 Headache and facial pain

10 Cerebrovascular disease

11 Common neck, arm and upper back problems

12 Back pain and common leg problems with or without difficulty walking

13 Abnormal movements and difficulty walking due to central nervous system problems

14 Miscellaneous neurological disorders

15 Further reading, keeping up-to-date and retrieving information

Appendices

A: The Mini-Mental State Examination

B: Benign focal seizures of childhood

C: Currently recommended drugs for epilepsy

D: Treatment of migraine

E: Epidemiology and primary prevention of stroke

F: Current criteria for t-PA in patients with ischaemic stroke

G: Barwon Health dysphagia screen

H: Nerve conduction studies and electromyography

I: Diagnostic criteria for multiple sclerosis

Glossary