Transverse Myelitis: Research on Diagnosis and Management

As an academic who has chronic residual (and slowly deteriorating) problems from an attack of Transverse Myelitis just before Christmas 2009, I am constantly on the lookout for updates in the international thinking about treatment and management. In particular, I have been keen to get high-level review articles. These ‘synthesize’ our knowledge and are constantly being updated when new research is published.

I have to come clean. I am a cheapskate. I am not into paying publishing companies exorbitant amounts of money just to access one article in full - which then may or may not meet my needs. I also have a philosophical belief that knowledge should be free – especially to those who really need to know what is going on; ie you and me. I tend to look for articles that are free to download. From ‘Google Scholar’ I have been able to find several articles that are fairly recent, are synthesizing the literature to date or synthesizing recent research, and are free to download.

Now let me be clear. You may find reading these very hard going, and may need a bit of help to interpret what they mean. But, if you download the articles and print them off, you may like to give them to your treating physician. They may be most relevant to someone who is new to having Transverse Myelitis, and you may like to ask your treating neurologist or other specialist whether they would be helpful.

Doctors are funny people. If you rush in and say: “This is how I expect you to treat my illness”, you will lose a friend. And those of us with TM will tell you that we need lots of friends. So be polite and respectful. Juts say you came across them, and wondered whether they would be helpful.

[PDF] Transverse myelitis: pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment

   Chitra Krishnan, Adam I. Kaplin, Deepa M. Deshpande, Carlos A. Pardo and Douglas A. Kerr. Frontiers in Bioscience 9, 1483-1499, May 1, 2004     You should be able to download this from ([PDF] from researchgate.net)

Idiopathic transverse myelitis Corticosteroids, plasma exchange, or cyclophosphamide  BM Greenberg, KP Thomas, C Krishnan, AI Kaplin  et al.  Neurology, 2007   You should be able to download this from ([PDF] from myelitis.org)

[PDF] An approach to the diagnosis of acute transverse myelitis


 Anu Jacob and Brian G. Weinshenker   SEMINARS IN NEUROLOGY · MARCH 2008     2008;28:105–120.    You should be able to download this from ([PDF] from researchgate.net)

Evidence-based guideline: Clinical evaluation and treatment of transverse myelitis Report of the Therapeutics and Technology Assessment Subcommittee of the …

 American Academy of Neurology T.F. Scott, E.M. Frohman, J. De Seze, et al. 
Neurology 2011;77;2128      You should be able to download this from ([PDF] from yimg.com)

Feedback, Comments and Discussion all welcome