Ideggyogy Szemle
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Lack of neurologists has become an obvious problem recently in Hungary, not only in small hospitals, but in major health care centers and also in university hospitals. With the current survey we set forth to estimate the number of board certified neurologists, and to evaluate the foreseeable changes in the next decade. In the beginning of 2010 there were 1310 physicians in Hungary with an official license to practice neurology. ⋯ The number of neurologists in the age range of 40-60 years will drop to 2/3 of the current number by 2020 even if emigration of neurologists will completely halt. If emigration will continue at the current rate and the number of those in neurological training will not increase considerably, then by 2020 only about 300 neurologists will have to cover neurological services throughout Hungary. As this number is insufficient for the task, and the tendency is clearly foreseeable, the health care government should urgently react to this situation to ensure an acceptable level of neurological services in the near future for the population of Hungary.
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Blockade of retrograde transport of nerve growth factor (NGF) in a peripheral sensory nerve is known to induce transganglionic degenerative atrophy (TDA) of central sensory terminals in the upper dorsal horn of the related, ipsilateral segments(s) of the spinal cord. The ensuing temporary blockade of transmission of nociceptive impulses has been utilized in the therapy of intractable pain, using transcutaneous iontophoresis of the microtubule inhibitors vincristin and vinblastin, drugs which inhibit retrograde transport of NGF. Since microtubule inhibition might inhibit (at least theoretically) mitotic processes in general, we sought to find a drug which inhibits retrograde transport of NGF without microtubule inhibition. ⋯ Since vinpocetine is not a microtubule inhibitor, its mode of action is enigmatic. It is assumed that the effect of vinpocetine might be related to interaction with membrane-trafficking proteins, such as signalling endosomes and the endocytosis-mediating "pincher" protein, involved in retrograde axoplasmic transport of NGF, or to interaction with glial elements, recently reported to be involved in the modulation of pain in the spinal cord. Based on animal experiments it is assumed that the temporary, locally restricted decrease of nociception, induced by vinpocetine applied via transcutaneous iontophoresis, might open up new avenues in the clinical treatment of intractable pain.