Clinical Neurology

This is a clinical neurology book for the student, non neurologist, and those that teach them. The book covers neuroanatomy, history taking and examination and then proceeds to discuss the clinical features of common problems as well as some of the more common rare, neurological disorders, in a way that will demystify a part of medicine that students find complex and difficult to understand. The book is accompanied by a DVD explaining concepts, demonstrating techniques of performing the neurological examination and demonstration of abnormal neurological signs.

The first chapter is devoted to neuroanatomy from a clinical viewpoint. The concept of localising problems by likening the nervous system to a map grid with vertical meridians of longitude (the ascending sensory pathways and the descending motor pathway)and horizontal parallels of latitude (cortical signs, brainstem cranial nerves, nerve roots and peripheral nerves) of the nervous system is developed. Subsequent chapters take the reader through the neurological examination and the common neurological presentations from a symptom oriented approach. Chapter 4 contains a very simple method of understanding the brainstem, the "rule of 4". Chapter 6 discusses the approach after the history and examination are completed. The final chapter is an overview of how to approach information gathering and keeping up-to-date using the complex information streams available.

"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