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UTHealth Houston Neurosciences Neurology – Texas Medical Center

Neurology Expertise

Our Specialties

Our Movement Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinic is a subspecialty clinic with expertly trained and certified faculty who are devoted to providing the best therapies and the most comprehensive care and management to our patients.

Our physicians specialize in diagnosing, treating, and managing a patient’s movement disorder. From the very first appointment, optimizing a patient’s quality of life and addressing the needs of our patients is of the utmost importance to our entire team. Our physicians strive to minimize patient stress and number of appointments by efficiently and comprehensively examining patients. This allows our physicians to create treatment plans that are specific to an individual patient and tailored to their needs and goals. Our clinical staff has decades of experience working with a wide variety of patients.

The movement disorders team specializes in the following disorders:

Huntington’s Disease Clinic: An HDSA Center of Excellence

UTHealth Houston Neurosciences Movement Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinic is proud to be one of 55 clinics nationwide to be designated a Center of Excellence by the Huntington Disease Society of America (HDSA), the premier nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of everyone affected by Huntington’s disease. Our team also actively participates in the Huntington Study Group (HSG), a nonprofit network of families, healthcare providers and researchers, sponsors, and partners seeking HD treatments that make a difference.

Our multidisciplinary approach for people at-risk or who are living with Huntington’s disease provides:

  • Genetic counseling and testing
  • Diagnosis
  • Ongoing neurological and psychiatric care
  • Neuropsychological testing and rehabilitation
  • Opportunities to participate in research
  • Social work services
  • Referral to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and nutrition services.

Current research at our HD Clinic include:

  • Enroll-HD – a worldwide observational study. (currently enrolling)
  • ChANGE-HD – multisite observational study for young individuals (age 6-30) at-risk for developing HD, evaluates changes in brain structure and function over time. (currently enrolling)
  • HD-Clarity – study to generate a high-quality cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) sample collection for evaluation of biomarkers that will enable the development of novel treatments for HD.evaluate biomarkers in HD. (currently enrolling)
  • Irritability in HD – evaluate the use of Nuedexta ® for treatment of irritability in HD. (currently enrolling)
  • Sleep Disorders in HD – evaluate the use of Melatonin for sleep disturbance in HD. (currently enrolling)
  • Olfactory Dysfunction in HD – evaluate for olfactory (smell) disturbances in HD. (currently enrolling)
  • uniQure – Evaluate AMT-130 in the treatment of genetically confirmed, early manifest HD patients. (currently enrolling)
  • “tDCS” for HD – clinical trial to assess feasibility, acceptability, and safety of home-based transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for patients in the early to mid-stages of HD. The study period is 8 weeks. (currently enrolling)
  • KINECT-HD2 – Open-label rollover study for valbenazine in the treatment of chorea n HD. (currently enrolling)
  • PIVOT-HD – study the safety and effectiveness of PTC518 in HD by lowering total huntingtin protein. (enrolling soon)
  • DIMENSION – evaluate the safety and efficacy of SAGE-718 on cognitive function in HD. (currently enrolling)
  • SURVEYOR – 28-day study for SAGE-718 on cognitive performance for early HD patients, involves driving simulation. (enrolling soon)

For more information on the Huntington’s Disease program, contact:

Neuromuscular Program

Physicians at UTHealth Houston subspecialize in complex neuromuscular disorders that are difficult to diagnose and treat, including neurodegenerative disorders, inflammatory nerve and muscle disorders, autoimmune neuromuscular junction disorders, traumatic nerve injuries and toxic metabolic disorders of the peripheral nerves and muscles. Led by Kazim A. Sheikh, MD, the UTHealth Houston Neuromuscular Program is a designated center of excellence for Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) and records more than 4,000 patient visits annually, primarily adults age 18 and older. About two-thirds of patients seen by physicians are over the age of 50.

Neurodiagnostic facilities at the group’s Texas Medical Center location include a state-of-the-art Electromyography (EMG) Laboratory and a Muscle and Nerve Laboratory. The EMG Lab, directed by UTHealth Houston neurologist Thy Nguyen, MD, provides comprehensive nerve conduction studies and EMG evaluations performed by experienced staff.

The neuromuscular program also offers biopsy services performed by our neuromuscular specialists and further processed in the laboratory by experienced staff. Specimens are then interpreted by specialists who are trained in neuromuscular pathology. The program offers muscle, nerve, and skin biopsies.

UT Professional Building
6410 Fannin Street, Suite 1014 
Houston, TX 77030 
Phone: (832) 325-7080

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