Welcome to the third issue of ACNR this year. You may be interested to know that the journal is currently receiving over 2000 visitors to this website every month, which is very encouraging to all of us involved.

In this issue we have review articles that focus on the X linked mental retardation and the
interplay between systemic and brain inflammation. We are also pleased to announce the launch of two new series of articles, one on neuropathology edited by Professor Roy Weller and the other on neurosurgery edited by Peter Whitfield, which forms our new management topic.

In his article, Professor Hugh Perry provides us with a thought provoking and far-reaching article on the role of brain inflammation in neurological diseases and how this may be affected by systemic inflammation. This is of great interest, as in neurological practice the relationship between intercurrent illnesses and neurological deterioration in conditions such as MS and Parkinson’s disease is well recognised, if poorly understood. Hugh helps us understand why this may occur, and by so doing how in future we may be able to better control CNS disease progression through modulating inflammatory
processes.

The genetics of learning disability is often regarded as difficult and of minimal interest to neuroscientists and neurologists, but in her article Dr Lucy Raymond shows just how wrong this perception has become. The realisation that the genes underlying these disorders are becoming better defined has led to a re-evaluation of the investigation of such children. In this article Lucy Raymond takes us through this rapidly emerging field,
highlighting where it is going and what insights this will reveal on our understanding of CNS development and maturation. This is truly a fast moving field with wide reaching implications to neurologists, geneticists and neuroscientists.

Roy Weller and Dr Mazanti begin the series of articles on neuropathology with an overview of the pathology of encephalitis - a condition which is succinct and accessible account on the aetiological agents underlying encephalitis, and how this translates into pathological processes. In addition they discuss the difficult issues of primary infection, versus ADEM and how these can be distinguished pathologically.

The new management topic of neurosurgery starts in this issue and follows on from our series on epilepsy, nerve and muscle disease and movement disorders (all freely available to read and download on our website). Peter Whitfield, who has kindly taken on organising this series of articles, presents his approach to the management of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) (see also Journal reviews on new recommendations for CSF examination in SAH). These articles, as with the others in these series, are designed to navigate the non-specialist through an area that will impinge - if not directly- on their clinical practice, and needless to say Peter does this
superbly in his account.

Whilst we are on the topic of vascular disease, we also have a very useful update on thrombolysis for acute ischaemic stroke by Dr Michael Power, which is particularly apt given the recent Lancet article on this very topic by Hacke et al.

The rehabilitation article in this issue tackles cerebral palsy (CP), and Mark Paterson delivers a beautifully written account on the progression and management of deformities in adults suffering with CP. This is a very sensible account on this topic and clearly comes from great experience, and is one of the best accounts I have ever read on this subject.

We also have all our other usual articles - Alex Leff appropriately takes on alexia in the cognitive primer series with an acknowledgement to the contribution and comments from Professor Elizabeth Warrington. In our historical section Andrew Larner discusses the neurological contributions of Caleb Hillier Parry.We also have two conference reports and a range of journal and book reviews, some of which can only be found on the web - so do
go and have a visit. Once more thanks for your continued support and do continue to feed back to us on what can be improved.

Roger Barker
AdvancesinCNR@aol.com