For Immediate Release, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A neurologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center recently received a $700,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore using neuromuscular ultrasound to diagnose and treat patients with focal neuropathies, including carpal tunnel syndrome and ulnar neuropathy. Wake Forest Baptist is one of a handful of institutions in the country offering the diagnostic service.
Michael Cartwright, M.D., a neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist, hopes to improve the care patients receive when diagnosed with nerve and muscle disease.
“Using neuromuscular ultrasound to diagnose nerve and muscle disease is offered at only a handful of institutions across the United States,” Cartwright said. “Typically, hospitals use traditional electrodiagnostic studies, like EMG and nerve conduction studies, to evaluate and diagnose these conditions. Our thought is that neuromuscular ultrasound, in addition to the electrodiagnostic studies, will ultimately result in our patients having better functional outcomes compared with those evaluated with traditional electrodiagnostic studies alone.”
The research project will take place over the next five years and will be divided into two phases. The first phase will demonstrate the validity and reliability of neuromuscular ultrasound. The second phase is a double-masked randomized clinical trial to assess the efficacy of diagnostic ultrasound on the functional outcomes of 150 individuals with focal neuropathies.
“By providing a more accurate and precise diagnosis, physicians can prescribe more appropriate treatments for their patients,” Cartwright said. “In turn, patients will benefit from more focused treatment.”
Cartwright will be working with Francis Walker, M.D., an international expert in neuromuscular ultrasound and a neurologist at Wake Forest Baptist.
Focal neuropathies affect more than 300,000 individuals each year in the United States and medical costs exceed $500 million annually.
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Media Contact: Rae Bush, rbush@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-6878; Bonnie Davis, (336) 716-4977, bdavis@wfubmc.edu; Mark Wright (336) 716-3382, mwright@wfubmc.edu.
About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and 4th in the Southeastern United States in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.