The Johns Hopkins Center for CSF Disorders offers a one-year fellowship in biomarkers of cerebrospinal fluid disorders. The program faculty includes a multi-specialty team of three full-time neurologists, a geriatrician, a neurosurgeon, an otolaryngologist, a neuroophthalmologist, and two neuroradiologists.

Eligibility and How to Apply

Qualified applicants will have completed an accredited neurology residency or a geriatric medicine fellowship. Interested candidates should send a CV to the fellowship director:

Sevil Yasar, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurology
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Phone: 410-550-2668
[email protected]

Program Goals

The fellowship aims to help fellows gain experience in:

• Clinical evaluation of patients with CSF disorders
• Conducting outpatient large-volume and extended inpatient CSF drainage trials
• Placement of lumbar spinal catheters
• Continuous spinal fluid pressure monitoring
• Quantitative gait analysis
• Formal cognitive testing
• Interpretation of MRI flow studies
• Shunt adjustment
• Performing and interpreting nuclear medicine shunt patency studies
• Use of ocular coherence tomography
• Visual field, color and acuity testing
• Pharmacologic management of intracranial hypertension
• Selection of candidates for venous sinus stenting

Research Activities

Research activities focus on the examination and development of CSF biomarkers for a range of conditions, including normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), pseudotumor cerebri (PTC), Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Research opportunities within the center are facilitated by ongoing collaborative studies of CSF biomarkers related to AD and FTD, as well as by the fact that the center is a member of the Adult Hydrocephalus Research Network (AHRN), a consortium of 8 hospitals across the USA and Canada.