14
AASM Membership Sections Newsletter
■
Issue #6
American Academy
of Sleep Medicine
Movement Disorders
Steering Committee
Profiles
Mauro Manconi, MD, PhD
(Chair)
Dr. Mauro Manconi, MD, PhD,
Chair,
is the head of the service
at the Sleep and Epilepsy Centre
of the Neurocenter of Southern
Switzerland in Lugano, Switzerland.
He is affiliated with the University
of Bern as a teacher of Neurology.
For 10 years he served as a clinical
researcher at the Sleep Lab of
Scientific Institute of San Raffaele in
Milan, Italy. He served for 1 year as
Visiting Professor at the Circadian
Rodent Lab of the Wisconsin Medical
College in Milwaukee, WI, where
he obtained the “Excellent in Sleep
Research Award” for his innovative
and leading research activity in
developing a pharmacogenetic
rodent model for Restless Legs
Syndrome. He is currently involved
in clinical and basic research in the
sleep field, with particular interest in
sleep-related motor disorders.
Denise Sharon, MD, PhD
(Vice Chair)
Dr. Denise Sharon, MD, PhD,
Vice-
Chair,
completed her medical training
at Sackler School of Medicine in
Tel Aviv, followed by a psychiatry
residency in Israel and a PhD in
psychology from Temple University.
She is board certified in sleep
medicine and has been practicing in
Louisiana for over 15 years.
2014 – 2015
CHAIR
Mauro Manconi, MD, PhD
VICE-CHAIR
Denise Sharon, MD, PhD
MEMBERS
Brian Koo, MD
M. Suzanne Stevens, MD, MS
Lynn Marie Trotti, MD, MSc
The Movement Disorder Section Committee (MDSC) had a fruitful section meeting at
SLEEP 2014 in Minneapolis. Members of the steering committee and the audience participated
in a stimulating discussion about clinical and research issues surrounding the sleep-related
movement disorders (SRMD). Dr. Mauro Manconi from Lugano (Switzerland) opened and
chaired the meeting, introducing Dr. Denise Sharon (vice-chair of the committee) from New
Orleans, who encouraged attendees to suggest possible topics for clinical practice guidelines,
underscoring the need for clinical consensus on important issues such as augmentation in
restless legs syndrome (RLS), the management of RLS during pregnancy and the diagnosis of
RLS in special conditions.
Following this discussion, Dr. Lynn Marie Trotti (MD committee member) from Emory
University provided updates on the results of the AASM RLS Quality Measures Task Force,
which was created to form quality metrics specific to the diagnosis and care of RLS. Two
awards were given at the meeting. The Section Investigator Award was given to Dr. Kyoung
Bin Im from Iowa University for the study entitled, “
Effect of Serotonin on Periodic Limb
Movements in Sleep: A Cross-sectional Study.
” The second award was for the best manuscript
concerning SRMD published in 2013 in either of the two official journals of the AASM (
SLEEP
and the
Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
(JCSM). The winning manuscript was “
Decision-
Making, Reward-Seeking Behaviors and Dopamine Agonist Therapy in RLS
,” published in the
journal
SLEEP
. The first author, Dr. Sophie Bayard, could not attend the meeting, but the
senior author, Dr. Yves Dauvillieres, was present to accept the award. Dr. Brian Koo (MD
committee member) from Yale University summarized the results of this interesting study,
which regarded the risk-taking behavior as an inherent personality trait of those with RLS.
The committee discussed the two section proposals that were accepted for SLEEP 2014. One
was a well-attended workshop on the management of augmentation in RLS, chaired by Drs.
Mauro Manconi and Michael Silber. The second one was an instructive postgraduate course
on the polysomnographic diagnosis and scoring of sleep related movement disorders, led by
Drs. Mauro Manconi, Lynn Marie Trotti and Rafaele Ferri. The meeting closed with a valuable
discussion on potential proposals for SLEEP 2015 in Seattle. The sections that follow are
directed toward different clinical and research issues regarding the sleep-related movement
disorders.
DISCLAIMER
No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
(AASM). The statements and opinions contained in editorials and articles in this newsletter are solely those of the authors
and not of the AASM or of its officers, members or employees. The Editor and Managing Editor of the Membership
Sections Newsletter, the AASM and its officers, members and employees disclaim all responsibility for any injury to
persons or property resulting from any ideas, products or services referred to in articles in this publication.
