C. Verhamme MD PhD

MD PhD C. Verhamme

Position

Medical Specialist

Main activities

Education, Patient care, Research

Specialisation

Neurology, clinical neurophysiology

Focus of research

The Department of Neurology performs clinical and translational research within three research themes: infection & inflammation, cerebrovascular disorders, and movement disorders. The themes are imbedded in the nine translational research programs of Amsterdam Neuroscience, the research institute of neuroscience investigators in the Amsterdam area. All staff members of the Department of Neurology are involved in research and collaborate within Neuroscience Amsterdam, with other academic and non-academic hospitals, and with international research groups.

Infection and inflammation. We perform clinical translational research in the field of neurological infections & inflammation. We perform prospective clinical cohort studies, randomized clinical trials, and experimental research, combining our clinical expertise with groundbreaking, translational approaches using clinical data, human samples, next generation sequencing, in vitro techniques, and mouse models in the era's of bacterial meningitis & encephalitis, infections after stroke, septic encephalopathy, and inflammatory diseases of peripheral nerves and muscles.

Neuromuscular disorders. Our neuromuscular centre is a NFU (Nederlandse federatie van universitaire medische centra) and ERN (European reference network) accredited center for neuromuscular diseases in general, and motor neuron disease (ALS), idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, poliomyelitis, hereditary neuropathies and inflammatory polyneuropathies in particular. Inflammatory diseases of peripheral nerves and muscles are the main focus of the neuromuscular research-line, within the research area neuro-infection and inflammation. The immune mediated neuropathies (e.g. GBS, CIDP, MMN) and idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (e.g. dermatomysositis, IBM) and critical illness neuropathy and myopathy are the specific diseases of interest. This research is patient-driven and translational. More specific, clinical trials, cohort studies and studies investigating immunological and genomic characterization of nerve and muscle inflammation are performed. From these studies we try to arrive at clinically relevant biomarkers of disease activity and predictors of response. For the critical illness neuromyopathies early predictors for disease and outcome are sought.
Improving the diagnostic and therapeutic options available to these patients are thus the starting point. The prevention of nerve and muscle damage and the improvement of the regenerative capacity are some of the key areas for the near future.

I am combining my position at the clinical neurophysiology with a neuromuscular outpatient clinic. Research topics are improving the diagnostic process for inflammatory neuropathies (CIDP, MMN and vasculitis), inflammatory myopathies (myositis) and critical illness neuromyopathy. The emphasis is on neurophysiological techniques, including nerve and muscle ultrasound. In collaboration with the department of radiology we are studying several MRI techniques to improve imaging of peripheral nerves including the plexus. Currently, we are also working on the start of a large national multicenter randomized clinical trial, in which we will compare initial surgical treatment with initial cortiocosteroid injection for carpal tunnel syndrome.