Important!

The Foundation of Department ("Legyôzzük a Bénultságot") is ready to provide grants for Hungarian and foreign physicians who are ready to perform experimental and clinical research work in the field of neurology.

Send applications to:

Prof. L. Csiba
Department of Neurology
H-4012 Debrecen
Nagyerdei krt. 98.
Phone: (36)-52-489-400
Phone/Fax: (36)-52-453-590
E-mail: csiba@jaguar.dote.hu

Faculty and staff:

Professor and Head of Department:

• László Csiba, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc

Professors:

• Ferenc Mechler, M.D., Ph.D.,D.Sc.
• Katalin Hegedüs, M.D., Ph.D.
• Dániel Bereczki, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate professors:

• István Fekete, M.D., Ph.D.
• Tünde Csépány, M.D., Ph.D
• Béla Fülesdi, M.D., Ph. D.

Assistant professors:

• Bertalan Vámosi, M.D.
• László Oláh, M.D., Ph.D.
• Eszter Hidasi, M.D.
• Levente Kerényi, M.D.
• Csaba Munkácsy M.D.
• Tünde Magyar, M.D., Ph.D.
• Judit Boczán, M.D., Ph.D.
• Sándor Molnár, M.D.
• András Lengyel, M.D.
• Antal Szabó, M.D.
• Péter Siró, M.D.
• Andrea Kovács, M.D.
• Ibolya Széll, M.D.

Residents

• Rita Szepesi, M.D.
• Klára Fekete, M.D.
• Norbert Kozák, M.D.
• Krisztina Csapó, M.D.
• Zoltán Gyöngyösi, M.D.
• Zsolt Mezei, M.D.

Ph.D. Students

• Judit Sóvágó, M.D.
• Boglárka Makkai

Total number of faculty and staff: 107

• Number of MDs: 27, Doctor of Sciences: 3
• M.D., Ph.Ds: 9
• Health care professionals: (registered nurses, physiotherapists, speech therapist, clinical and histology lab assistants, etc.): 62
• Administrators: 7
• Auxiliary personnel: 11

Student participation in training and scientific work: A student representative is a member of the department council and participates in the meetings of the council with the right to vote in training affairs.

After the preclinical courses students (members of the Students Scientific Society) are welcome to participate in the research activities of the department.

In the last few years numerous theses in various fields of neurology have been submitted from the department and successfully defended.

The history of the Department of Neurology

The Medical Faculty of the Science University of Debrecen was founded in 1918. Since then, Debrecen has been the most important center of both health care and medical training in the eastern regions of Hungary. The Department of Neurology has always been an internationally acknowledged center for scientific research.

Chairmen of the Department:

The Department at present

The Department of Neurology at the University Hospital treats more than 15,000 patients per year. About 15% of them are inpatients on 66 hospital beds, the rest are treated as outpatients.

Besides the clinical and research activities the Department is responsible for the training of medical students in neurology in the fifth and sixth years of the curriculum of the medical school.

• In the fifth year, lectures and practical training are organized into two semesters, with a total training time of 100 hours. Thirty three hours are classroom lectures covering the most important issues in clinical neurology. The rest of the training time is divided into practical classes (two hours per week in both semesters) and into a week-long practice attached to a neurological unit at the end of the second semester. The first semester is completed with an end of term exam.
• In the sixth year, students participate in a four week rotation which is followed by a final examination in neurology.
• The Department participates in the Hungarian postgraduate training of medical doctors for specialization in neurology. The Department is authorized to judge the candidate's qualification.
• The university lectures are focused on the most frequent neurological disorders (headache, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, stroke and parkinson syndrome).
• The method of "problem-based-learning" and modern teaching materials (videos, CD-ROM) were introduced.

Editor and co-author:

• "Guidelines from neurology for family doctors" (Medikom, 1994).
• "Testbook from medicine". "Emergency in neurology" ( DOTE 1997).
• "Diagnostic methods in neurology" (Medicina 1998, in prep.):reviews the modern neurological imaging techniques, electrophysiological and CSF diagnostic methods.
• "Neurological aspects of internal medicine" (in prep.)

Special training programs are also available in various fields of neurology corresponding to the major scientific interests of the department:

• 1. Cerebrovascular diseases
• 2. Neuromuscular diseases
• 3. Neuropathology
• 4. Specialization in therapy

Besides the regular profile of a neurological department, specialized ambulatory care units have been organized in the following fields:

• 1.Cerebrovascular diseases (about 1,800 patients/year)
• 2.Neuromuscular diseases (about 580 patients/year)
• 3.Headache and pain (about 2,200 patients/year)
• 4.Parkinsonism and other extrapyramidal disorders (about 650 patients/year)
• 5.Convulsive disorders (about 670 patients/year)
• 6.Neuroimmunology (about 1,200 patients/year) Diagnostic

Laboratories of the Department

Special laboratories operate at the Department for in- and outpatients. About 13 100 outpatients are examined in these laboratories yearly , of there:

• the Ultrasound Laboratory examines about 9,400,
• the EEG Laboratory about 1,800,
• the EMG -ENG Laboratory about 1,400 and
• the Evoked Potentials Laboratory about 540 outpatients.
• Each year the Chemical Laboratory performs about 150 cerebrospinal fluid tests and 150 tests for detecting oligoclonal gammopathy .
• The CT laboratory is located in the same building (only some meters from the stroke ICU).
• Department of Neurology has free access to DSA, MRI, MR- Angiography,
• SPECT and PET (butanol, methionin and 18F-deoxyglucose tracers) examinations performed at the Institute of Nuclear Research.
• Basic molecular biological investigations are performed routinously such as the isolation of DNA from different tissues and the performing of polymerase chain reactions (PCR) and gel electrophoresis. The diagnostic work started in January 1997:our laboratory has equipment and methodology to detect the mitochondrial DNA deletions in mitochondriopathies. The introduction of the molecular biological diagnosis of other neuromuscular disorders (eg. hereditary neuropathies, dystrophia myotonica) is planned in the future.
• Experimental Stroke Laboratory
• Neuropathology Laboratory

Available instruments

• HP Sonos-4500 Color Duplex Ultrasound instrument with probes for examination of extracranial and intracranial vessels (TCD), transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), transthoracal echocardiography (TTE)
• Transcranial Dopplers (two fixed, two portable) including emboli detection, head up tilt table test
• Portapress (beat-to-beat non invasive BPM)

• Cadwell Easy Writer96
• Cadwel Spectrum 32 (mapping and computerized EEG)
• Nicolet Viking IV. (ENG, EMG, SFEMG, SSEP, BAEP, MEP)
• Magstim 200 (MEP), Bistim Module
• Key Point (Dantec) (ENG, Quantitative EMG, Macro-EMG, Reflex studies)
• Nikon Kohden Neuropack (VEP, BAEP, SSEP)
• Alice 3 Polysomnograph Systems (EEG, EOG, EMG, ECG, plethysmograph, pulsoxymeter)
• Stardust Polygraphs

• Agar-gel electrophoresis system for detecting oligoclonal gammopathy

• Thermocycle, gel electrophoresis system,
• UV transluminator, polaroid photosystem, centrifuge, automatic pipettes.

Most significant collaborators

Current research activities at the department

• 1. Development of various stroke models in animal experiments.
• 2. Changes of cerebral metabolism after stroke.
• 3. The blood flow, EEG and oxygen consumption of the brain under physiological conditions and in stroke models and the effects of neurotransmitters.
• 4. Development and use of various regional methods in different stroke models.

• 1. Clinical research in this ward and the accompanying Clinical Ultrasound Lab concentrates on developing and using noninvasive ultrasonographic procedures (extracranial, intracranial monitoring).
• 2.Transcranial Doppler measurements, evaluation of cerebrovascular reserve capacity (diamox test) in various cerebrovascular diseases.
• 3.B-mode and duplex imaging of the carotid system, comparing B-mode data to postmortal findings, characterisation of arteriosclerotic plaques, follow-up of patients with cerebrovascular diseases, effects of new drugs on cerebrovascular diseases.
• 4. Cerebral blood velocity and evoked potential drugs during physical loading on stroke-risk patients (hypertension, hypercholesterolemic and diabetic patients).
• 5. Drug trials
• 6. Comparative studies using PET, SPECT, TCD on stroke-prone, on stroke patients and on neuroimmunological patients.
• 7. Clinical epidemiological examinations on stroke-risk, (hypertonia, diabetes, TIA) stroke patients and in poststroke conditions.
• 8. Comparison of hemodynamical and neurophysiological abnormalities of symptom-free stroke-prone patients.

1.The pathogenesis of muscular disorders studied by electrophysiological, histological and molecular biological methods, particularly in Duchenne, Becker, FSH and limb-girdle muscular dystrophies.

2.Regeneration in muscular dystrophies with fast and slow progression.

3.Disorders affecting motor pathways studied by means of magnetic stimulation.

4.Ultrastructural and molecular biological investigations in mitochondriopathies.

Awards, Grants and Scholarships

• The lecture of T. Csépány et al. won the Award of exellence in stroke research at the European Stroke Conference (1994. Stockholm)
• The lecture of Z. Káposzta et al. won the first prize at the 10th International Symposium on Cerebral Hemodynamics/1st Meeting of the European Society of Neurosonology and Cerebral Hemodynamics (1996. Munich)
• Fekete et al 1996: "The best publication of the university based on clinico/experimental cooperation" Price of Medical University Debrecen,
• Dr. Fekete: OTKA T021107, 1996-98, DOTE Mecenatura 14/96, 1996-98. "Examination of haemorheological parameters in comparison with blood flow velocity measurements with transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and detection of microemboli of the middle cerebral artery in stroke patients."
• In 1994 Dr. Mária Molnár won the Grant of Alexander von Humboldt for two years. • In 1996. Dr. Mária Molnár won the Mecenatura grant
• Dr. Mechler: OTKA 1479, ETT T-520, ETT-4030, OTKA 12 955
• Dr. Hegedûs: OTKA-T6489, OTKA-T6240, OTKA-1456, ETT-091/1966
• Dr. Bereczki: NIH Capillary Dynamics Grant, NIH Javits Award Grant , Cochrane Collab. Rew. Group
• Fülesdi et al. 1997: "The best publication of the university based on clinico/experimental cooperation" Price of Medical University Debrecen,
• Dr. Csiba
  • 1986-89:MTA AKA (1-3-86-309) Experiments on focal cerebral ischemia
  • 1990:European Science Foundation grant.
  • 1991 co-applicant of OTKA foundation No. 1493. "Morphological quantitative investigations on BBB in tumors and focal ischemia"
  • 1991, OTKA No.1475: "Study of arteriosclerotic plaque resulting in carotid arteriosclerosis:X-ray fluorescence histology and ultrasonic methods".
  • Co-applicant:1993. OMFB Mec-93-0022, The first PET camera in Middle-European region.
  • Co-applicant:OTKA. CO 370:Cerebral blood flow, oxygen, glucose metabolism and neuroreceptor function in humans (parallel investigations).
  • 210/92 Ministry of Education: Establishing of Ph.D. program in Debrecen
  • ETT T-04 428/93: Hemodynamic, hemostasis and cerebral metabolism in transient focal ischemia on patients and in animal experiments.
  • OTKA 12 845:The investigation of hemostasis abnormality in TIA and in stroke.
  • OTKA 017069 PET investigation:Focal epilepsy patients: pharmacologically resistant and pharmacol. reactive epilepsy patients.
  • FEFA 1113:Development of postgraduate education of the most frequent neurological disease.
  • OMFB scientific grant (1997) for development of EEG and Doppler laboratories.
  • Three years german-hungarian cooperation supported by the government, 1998-2000.
  • Young fellows from Germany and Japan spent months at our department during the last years.
  • The Department of Neurology's foundation: "Legyôzzük a bénultságot" invited 7 physicians from different countries, especially from Eastern Europe for 3-6 months scholarship and scientific cooperation.

Content: Prof.László Csiba
HTML/WEB design: Prof.Katalin Hegedüs

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Created: January 16, 1999
Last modified: February 9, 2007