William A. Pulsinelli, M.D., Ph.D.

Semmes-Murphey Professor & Chairman, Department of Neurology
Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology

Education

B.S.	Villanova University	1965
Ph.D.	University of Utah, Department of Biochemistry	1970
M.D.	University of Utah College of Medicine	1973

Post-Graduate Training

Intern	Internal Medicine. The New York Hospital	1974
	Cornell University Medical College
Resident	Neurology. The New York Hospital	1977
	Cornell University Medical College

Professional Experience

Assistant Professor	Department of Neurology
	Cornell University Medical College	1978
Associate Professor	Department of Neurology
	Cornell University Medical College	1982
Director	Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism
	Cornell University Medical College	1983
Professor	Department of Neurology
	Cornell University Medical College	1988
Professor & Chairman	Department of Neurology
	U. of Tennessee College of Medicine	1992

Professional Certification & Licensing

Diplomate	National Board of Medical Examiners	1974
Diplomate	American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology	1980
Medical License	New York	1974
Medical License	Tennessee	1992
Medical License	Mississippi	1995

Clinical Subspecialty Expertise

Stroke, Cerebrovascular Disease, Cardiac Arrest, Metabolic Brain Disease

Research Interests

Human and animal research to define how disturbances of blood flow and metabolism cause dysfunction and damage to brain cells. We seek to identify the molecular basis for ischemic (loss of blood flow) injury to brain and for the phenomenon of "selective vulnerability", i.e. the unique sensitivity of specific brain neurons to a lack of oxygen and glucose. More recent research interests focus on the genetic and environmental factors that predispose to increasing the frequency and severity of stroke.

Representative Publications

Books, Book Chapters, etc.

Pulsinelli W: Cerebrovascular Diseases: Principles, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, J Wyngaarden and L Smith (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2057-2063, 1996.

Pulsinelli W: Ischemic Cerebrovascular Disease, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, J Wyngaarden and L Smith (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2063-2073, 1996.

Pulsinelli W: Hemorrhagic Cerebrovascular Disease, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, J Wyngaarden and L Smith (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2073-2080, 1996.

Pulsinelli W: Selective neuronal vulnerability and infarction in cerebrovascular disease. In Primer on Cerebrovascular Diseases, M Welch, L Caplan, D Reis, B Siesjo, and B Weir (eds) Academic Press, pp. 104-106, 1997.

Pellegrini-Giampietro D, Zukin S, Pulsinelli W: Neurotransmitter Receptor Alterations in Cerebral Hypoxia/Ischemia. In Cerebrovascular Disease: Pathology, Diagnosis, and Management. M Ginsberg and J Bogousslavsky (eds) Blackwell Science, Cambridge, MA, pp. 423-432, 1998.

Pulsinelli W: Cerebrovascular Disease. In The Merck Manual, Edition 17, pp.1417-1427,1999.

Pulsinelli W: Cerebrovascular Diseases: Principles, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, L Goldman and J C Bennett (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2092-2098, 2000.

Pulsinelli W: Ischemic Cerebrovascular Disease, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, L Goldman and J C Bennett (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2099-2108, 2000.

Pulsinelli W: Hemorrhagic Cerebrovascular Disease, In Cecil Textbook of Medicine, L Goldman and J C Bennett (eds) W B Saunders, Philadelphia, pp. 2109-2115, 2000.

Pulsinelli W: Hyperglycemia: Dependent or independent predictor of ischemic stroke outcome? Journal Watch Neurology 4: 50, 2002.

Pulsinelli W: Stroke Models, In Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences, Aminoff MJ and Daroff RB (eds) Academic Press, New York, 2003

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

The European Ad Hoc Consensus Group: Neuroprotection as initial therapy in acute stroke. Cerebrovascular Disease. 8:59-72, 1998.

Petito C, Olarte J-P. Roberts B, Nowak T, Pulsinelli W: Selective glial vulnerability to post-ischemic cell death. J Neuropath Exp Neurol, 57: 231-238, 1998.

Gao T-M, Pulsinelli W, Xu Z: Prolonged enhancement and depression of synaptic transmission in CA1 pyramidal neurons induced by transient forebrain ischemia in vivo. Neuroscience, 87: 371-383, 1998.

Howard E. Gao T-M, Pulsinelli W, Xu Z: Electrophysiological changes of CA3 neurons and dentate granule cells following transient forebrain ischemia. Brain Res, 798: 109-118, 1998.

Gao T-M, Pulsinelli W, Xu Z: Changes of membrane properties in CA1 pyramidal neurons after transient forebrain ischemia in vivo. Neuroscience, 90: 771-780, 1999.

Stroke Therapy Academic Industry Roundtable (STAIR): Recommendations for standards regarding preclinical neuroprotective and restorative drug development. Stroke 30: 2752-2758, 1999.

Meade CA, Figueredo-Cardenas G, Fusco F, Nowak T, Pulsinelli W, Reiner A: Transient global ischemia in rats yields striatal projection neuron and interneuron loss resembling that in Huntingtons’s Disease. Experimental Neurology 166: 307-323, 2000.

Ren Y, Megumi H, Pulsinelli W, Nowak, T: Hypothermic protection in rat focal Ischemia models: strain differences and relevance to “reperfusion injury”. J Cereb Blood Flow & Metab, 24: 42-53, 2004.

Halaby I, Takeda Y, Yufu K, Nowak T, Pulsinelli W. Depolarization thresholds for hippocampal damage, ischemic preconditioning, and changes in gene expression after global ischemia in the rat. Neuroscience Letters 372: 12-16, 2004.

Kamiya T, Jacewicz M, Nowak T, Pulsinelli W. Cerebral blood flow thresholds for MRNA synthesis after focal ischemia and the effect of MK-801. Stroke 36: 2463-2467, 2005.