Neurology

The Department of Neurology was established in 1952, during the early period following the hospital’s founding. After the dedicated efforts of several generations, it now has 143 beds distributed across three campuses. There are 65 physicians, including 15 chief physicians and 13 associate chief physicians, as well as 67 nurses and 18 technicians. Each of the three campuses has an independent neurological emergency service, providing 7X24-hour services for the stroke green channel. The annual number of outpatient and emergency visits exceeds 200,000, and more than 4,000 patients are discharged annually. The department has well-developed auxiliary examination facilities, including electroencephalography, electromyography, polysomnography, cerebrovascular ultrasound, and neuropsychological assessment. The three campuses implement standardized management. Every Wednesday, they conduct large-scale remote handovers, difficult-case discussions, and imaging interpretation studies; every Friday, they conduct literature studies. The nursing team adheres to a “patient-centered” approach, strictly implements all core systems, strengthens routine operational management, consolidates basic nursing care, safeguards patient safety, and improves patient satisfaction.

The department comprises specialist groups for cerebrovascular disease; Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders; cognitive disorders; neuropsychology, sleep disorders, and chronic fatigue syndrome; infectious, immune, and muscular diseases; epilepsy, headache, and other paroxysmal disorders; neurogenetic diseases; and peripheral neuropathy and electrophysiology. The department is a tertiary stroke center and can perform minimally invasive interventional treatments, including intravenous thrombolysis, bridging mechanical thrombectomy, intracranial and extracranial arterial stent placement, mechanical thrombectomy for cerebral venous sinuses, and endovascular aneurysm surgery, greatly improving the diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular disease. A specialist outpatient clinic for arterial stenosis is available. Stroke-specialty clinics have also been established at three community hospitals—Chunshu, Taoranting, and Xinfuli—to guide stroke prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in the community.

The Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders group focuses primarily on research into the gut microbiota of patients with Parkinson’s disease and restless legs syndrome. It provides specialist and expert outpatient clinics for Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders and has established a renowned expert team. The team has led a national multicenter study on the use of bifidobacterium triple viable capsules to improve motor and sleep disorders in patients with Parkinson’s disease; established databases of patients with Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders and of patients with rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder; and, in cooperation with the Department of Nuclear Medicine, developed MIBG testing for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. It is currently the largest MIBG testing center in China. The team led the establishment of the Neurology Sleep Center, which is also one of the largest sleep centers in Beijing. As the lead-member institution of the Sleep Medicine Specialty Committee of the Chinese Medical Education Association, it has established a polysomnography laboratory, greatly promoting research into sleep disorders and neurological diseases.

The cognitive disorders group operates a memory disorders clinic and is a designated institution for the construction of an advanced cognitive center of the National Health Commission. The Department of Neurology at the Tongzhou Campus has partnered with the Xuxinzhuang Community Health Center to establish a community memory clinic, created a clinical database of cognitive disorders, and conducted corresponding cohort studies, laying a theoretical foundation for the early diagnosis and treatment of cognitive disorders.

The neuropsychology group focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of common conditions such as anxiety, depression, and somatic symptom disorders. It also has considerable diagnostic and therapeutic expertise in neuropsychological disorders associated with chronic fatigue syndrome, sleep disorders, and various physical diseases. The infectious, immune, and muscular disease group has extensive experience in the diagnosis, treatment, and teaching of viral meningitis and encephalitis; autoimmune encephalitis such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis; neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder; multiple sclerosis; myasthenia gravis; and other diseases.

The Department of Neurology is an educational site for doctoral and master’s students in neurology at Capital Medical University and a resident physician training base, as well as a national clinical pharmacology research base. It undertakes neurology teaching for the International School, eight-year program, and undergraduate students of Capital Medical University. It has been rated an excellent teaching and research section for several consecutive years. The department currently has 3 doctoral supervisors and 10 master’s supervisors. Each year, it undertakes 3–5 continuing education programs. Over the past ten years, it has led more than 50 national, provincial, and ministerial-level research projects and has led or participated in more than 10 domestic and international multicenter clinical trials on cognitive disorders, Parkinson’s disease, headache, and stroke. In total, 20 individuals have been approved as hospital seed talents, 2 have received the Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star award, 4 have been recognized as high-level talent discipline leaders by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, and 1 has been approved as a “High-level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program • Climbing” talent and received independent innovation funding from the Beijing Municipal Health Commission. More than 10 key physicians in the department have been selected by the Beijing Li Huanying Medical Foundation to study abroad. Approximately 50 articles in Chinese and English are published each year. The department has served as chief editor of Clinical Evoked Potential Studies, Hereditary and Metabolic Diseases of the Nervous System, Physiological and Pathological Chemistry of the Nervous System, Toxic and Metabolic Diseases of the Nervous System, Neurovirology—Basic and Clinical, and Detailed Analysis of Neurology Disease Cases, and as associate chief editor of Restless Legs Syndrome and other monographs. It has obtained 1 Chinese invention patent and 1 Japanese invention patent, and has collaborated with a Chinese Academy of Sciences team to develop a wearable device for improving gait disorders in Parkinson’s disease.

The department will remain true to its original aspiration and serve patients wholeheartedly with an attitude of solidarity and collaboration, scientific rigor, conscientiousness, responsibility, and positivity.