Letter from the Founding Editor for Volume 7, Issue 1

This is the first issue of the year for Volume 7 of the RRNMF Neuromuscular Journal.My colleague of many years, Dr. Josh Freeman, has allowed us to publish two of his recent pieces on the state of medicine in the United States.The article on the problems with pre-authorization was originally published as an opinion piece in the Arizona Star.Dr. Freeman's second article is timely, as it deals with the potential problems with AI as a communication vehicle to patients.In the section on original research, the University of Kansas neuromuscular group, to which I still have a long distance connection, is publishing the interesting phase 1B dose escalation study of oxaloacetate (OAA) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).This drug had previously been used in an Alzheimer's disease trial by our colleagues at KU (Swerdlow and Burns), and that is were we got the idea for the mitochondrial approach to neurodegenerative disease.We believe we now have good information from this phase 1B study, which can inform a potential phase 2 randomized controlled trial.Also in original contributions is a description by Dr. Hussain and Dr. Shabani on how to operate a high volume clinical research program when you are not in an academic setting.Dr. Shabani has done this for many years at his large neuromuscular private practice in the Texas Medical Center.Dr. Hussain is a mentee of Dr. Shabani's, and he is emulating his mentor in his Austin practice.It is very impressive how both of these neuromuscular specialists have been successful in making clinical trials a significant part of the practice portfolio.Dr. Hussain presented this information at the NMSG meeting last year in Italy, and I asked him and Dr, Shabani to turn it into a manuscript.I am so pleased they have done that.In the case reports section, Dr. Yuebing Li and Dr. Sakhi Bhansali report a fascinating case of a patient with Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) that had a chronic cough as part of the clinical phenotype.The authors then provide a nice review of potential causes of neuropathic cough.Dr. Isho, Dr. Gonzales and Dr. Ma at the University of Washington Medical Center report a case of Lambert-Eaton syndrome and underlying prostate adenocarcinoma, an unusual relationship.The final case in this issue is reported by Leah Naasz, a medical student, and her mentors at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine.They describe a patient who had human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infection discovered when they were being worked up for a case that resembles the acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN) form of the Guillain-Barre syndrome.In the review article section, we again publish an article based on a lecture given in the neuromuscular review course