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RTK.NET Mail 201146 Sep 3 19:05:46 1996 Jacob Drollinger wrote: >My Parkinson's was caused by CO poisoning. For some reason, the poison >bypassed the cognitive functions of my brain, and went strait to the >pallidus, in which I now have (as a former neuro once told me), a "Hole". <snip> I have heard that having a pallidotomy is >the only way in which they can get GDNF across the blood brain barrier. If >that is true, and I already have a hole in my pallidus, wouldn't that make me >a prime candidate for the treatment? >Any answers or thoughts would be appreciated. It's not that you need to have a whole pallidotomy, for the GDNF is dripped into a ventrical space in the brain. It's a considerably less invasive and complicated procedure than a pallidotomy and does not require stereotactic procedures and equipment (this information comes from the presentation by an Amgen rep. at last May's PAN forum). Like a pallidotomy, however, it does involve drilling a hole in the patients skull. Since these are the first human trials, it's a pretty radical procedure considering the fact that the goal is to establish the safety of the procedure itself, not to fine tune something shown to at least be experimentally successful on Parkinson's patients (like fetal tissue implants and pallidotomy, etc.) Wanting to do as little harm as possible in these first trials, there's an obvious advantage to using a patient who has already had a surgery that required entering the brain through the same area of the skull. I know this wasn't the answer you wanted to hear...sorry. Sherri [log in to unmask] >