Professor Richard Hughes

Professor Richard Hughes MD FRCP FMedSci

Emeritus Professor of Neurology at King’s College London, and
Visiting Professor of Neurology at University College London

Richard Hughes studied medicine at Cambridge University and then at Guy’s Hospital Medical School. He was appointed Consultant Neurologist at Guy’s Hospital in 1975 and Professor of Neurology at what is now King’s College London in 1987. He was awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000 and the Medal of the Association of British Neurologists in 2006. He retired from his NHS consultancies in 2007 but maintains his research interests in the pathogenesis and treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy and especially systematic reviews of treatment for neuromuscular disease.

In 1998, Professor Hughes founded the Cochrane Neuromuscular Review Group http://www.neuromuscular.cochrane.org/en/index.html. Its editorial base is in the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases, and is funded by grants from the UK Department of Health and the European Union TREAT-NMD programme
http://www.treat-nmd.eu/home.php. The group now maintains more than 70 reviews of interventions for the whole range of neuromuscular diseases. He remains the sole Co-ordinating Editor until April 2009 when he will share the position with Dr Michael Lunn and then step down in April 2010. He has led international trials of intravenous immunoglobulin and immunosuppressive drugs in Guillain-Barré syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. His publications include 12 books, 47 book chapters, more than 190 original journal articles and more than 120 editorials, reviews and other journal articles.

Professor Hughes is the founding chair of the Inflammatory Neuropathy Consortium, a special interest group of international Peripheral Nerve Society, which aims to facilitate research into the cause and treatment of inflammatory neuropathies http://www.pnsociety.com/INC.htm.

Professor Hughes was formerly Vice-President and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Federation of Neurological Societies http://www.efns.org/ and became its President in September 2009.

Contact details

Professor Richard Hughes
Institute of Neurology
8-11 Queen Square
London WC1N 3BG
Direct tel: 020 7380 6868
Internal tel x713022

Email: rhughes11@btinternet.com

Website:
http://www.neuromuscular.cochrane.org/en/index.html

Publications:

Hughes RA, Donofrio P, Bril V, Dalakas MC, Deng C, Hanna K et al. 2008
Intravenous immune globulin (10% caprylate-chromatography purified)
for the treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating
polyradiculoneuropathy (ICE study): a randomised placebo-controlled
trial. Lancet Neurol 2008;7:136-44. This was the largest trial ever
conducted in CIDP and led to the registration of the intravenous immunoglobulin
product used by the Food and Drug Administration of the USA.

RMC Trial Group. 2009 Randomised controlled trial of methotrexate for chronic
inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (RMC trial):
a pilot, multicentre study. Lancet Neurol 2009; 8: 158-164. IF 14.73
This was the largest trial of an immunosuppressive drug ever conducted in
CIDP and did not show significant benefit from methotrexate but led to
proposals for improved designs of trials in this disease.

Hughes RAC, Swan AV, Raphael J-C, Annane D, van Koningsveld R;
van Doorn PA. Immunotherapy for Guillain-Barré syndrome: a systematic
review. Brain 2007; doi: 10.1093/brain/awm004 IF 7.535 This umbrella
review incorporates three Cochrane reviews authored by Professor
Hughes and other trials. It forms the basis of international guidelines
for the treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Hughes RAC, Charlton J, Latinovic R, Gulliford MC. No association
between Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Immunization in the United Kingdom
1992 to 2000. Arch Intern Med 2006; 166:1301-1304. IF 8.016 This
epidemiological study using the General Practice Research database
showed no increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome following current
vaccines, contradicting the message from previous uncontrolled observations.

Gulliford MC, Latinovic R, Charlton J, Hughes RA. Increased Incidence of
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome up to 10 Years Before Diagnosis of Diabetes.
Diabetes Care 2006;29:1929-30. IF 7.844 This epidemiological study
using the General Practice Research database showed that carpal tunnel
syndrome occurs before the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus significantly
more often that in controls and indicated a need to be alert for the
development of diabetes in this group.

Hughes RAC, Cornblath DR Guillain-Barré syndrome. Seminar series.
Lancet 2005; 366: 1653-56. IF 23.878 This invited and refereed review
summarises my career long investigations of the pathogenesis and
treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Hughes RAC,et al. A controlled investigation of the cause of chronic
idiopathic axonal polyneuropathy. Brain 2004; 127:1723-50. IF 7.535
This is still the only controlled study of this patient group, which forms
up to 5% of the elderly population. It challenged the conventional
hypothesis that this form of neuropathy is due to hyperglycaemia,
showing instead a relationship with hypertriglyceridaemia which is now
being investigated throughout the world.

Hughes, R. A. C.et al. Randomized controlled trial of intravenous
immunoglobulin versus oral prednisolone in chronic inflammatory
demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. Annals of Neurology 2001;
50:195-201. 2001. IF 7.571 This European RCT arose from my EU
FP4 programme and is the only comparison of these two treatments.
The lack of any difference between them has been used as the basis
of international treatment guidelines.