Dr. Alireza Minagar is Professor and Chairman of neurology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. As a graduate of Department of Neurology at University of Miami, he did a two-year fellowship in multiple sclerosis and clinical neuroimmunology at the Multiple sclerosis Center of University of Miami. Dr. Minagar has significant interest in pathophysiology and neuroimaging features of the inflammatory disease of human central nervous system, in general, and multiple sclerosis, in particular. His life-long passion is to better understand interactions between the inflamed endothelial cells and other cellular components of blood. Dr. Minagar strongly believes in team work and constantly works with other neurologists and neuroscientists around the globe. He has published more than two hundred manuscripts in peer-reviewed journal and textbooks on multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

As a core part of the central nervous system, the spinal cord has a distinctive role in the etiology and exacerbation of common and less common neurologic disorders. This issue of Neurologic Clinics will look at the spinal cord's involvement in disorders arising generally in the CNS, as well as disorders based within the cord itself. Articles include: Spinal cord: A review of functional neuroanatomy; Infections of spinal cord; Multiple sclerosis and spinal cord; Transverse myelitis; Neuromyelitis optica; Vascular disorders of spinal cord; Spine and spinal cord trauma; Imaging of spinal cord: General principles; Toxic, nutritional, and metabolic deficiencies of spinal cord; Spinal cord: Motor neuron diseases; Spinal cord tumors: New views and future directions; Spinal cord and spasticity: A mechanistic view; Cervical spondylosis and stenosis; Autonomic nervous system disorders and spinal cord; Stiff person syndrome: What is new?; Sleep disorders in patients with spinal cord injury.