FENTON, MO – The SSM Neurosciences Institute recently welcomed neurologist Laurence Kinsella, M.D., FAAN, FACP, to its multidisciplinary team, which treats the full range of conditions affecting the brain and spine. Dr. Kinsella is based at the institute’s newly completed home on the campus of St. Clare Health Center.
Kinsella specializes in neuromuscular diseases and autonomic disorders. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls and regulates automatic functions within the body, including blood pressure, heart rate, airway size and airflow to the lungs, digestive tract functions, sweat production, and bowel and bladder function.
In some neurological disorders, the ANS can become dysfunctional. ANS disturbances are difficult to diagnose because they can produce a wide variety of symptoms, such as dizziness, fainting, bladder urgency, fatigue, nausea, palpitations and abnormal sweating.
A breakthrough in testing
The SSM Neurosciences Institute at St. Clare Health Center contains one of the region’s only autonomic function testing laboratories. This state-of-the-art equipment provides the ability to quantitatively evaluate ANS functioning through a series of tests. These include tilt-table testing to assess for low blood pressure, heart rate variations with deep breathing and measuring sweat production.
In addition to the autonomic function lab, the new facility at SSM St. Clare Health Center contains a neurodiagnostic lab offering nerve conduction studies, electromyography (EMG) -- used to record electrical activity of muscles -- and electroencephalography (EEG) -- used to record electrical activity of the brain. Kinsella is board-certified in neurology, electromyography and internal medicine.
Dr. Kinsella’s office is located in Suite 200 of the St. Joseph Building on the hospital’s campus, 1055 Bowles Ave. in Fenton. To contact the institute, call 636-496-3900.
The neuro-specialists based at SSM St. Clare collaborate with other neurosurgeons and neurologists across SSM Neurosciences Institute’s five locations, as well as stroke coordinators, emergency physicians, pain specialists, nurse practitioners, radiologists, physiatrists and therapists.
Dr. Kinsella, a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology, is professor of neurology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He has published and presented internationally.
A native St. Louisan, he earned a medical degree at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and completed an internal medicine residency at St. John’s Mercy in St. Louis, a neurology residency at Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a neuromuscular disease/electromyography fellowship at Columbia University in New York.
Kinsella formerly served as an assistant professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and as chief of neurology at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.
About SSM Neurosciences Institute
SSM Neurosciences Institute operates the region’s leading network of stroke centers with locations at DePaul Health Center, St. Clare Health Center, St. Joseph Health Center, St. Joseph Hospital West and St. Mary’s Health Center. An expert team of neurologists, neurosurgeons and neurointerventionists provides a full range of neurosciences care, using state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment technology. For more information, visit ssmhealth.com/neuro.
About SSM St. Clare Health Center
SSM St. Clare Health Center is located at 1015 Bowles Ave., Fenton, MO 63026. The campus – complete with a 154-bed hospital (soon-to-be 174 beds), SSM Heart Institute, SSM Neurosciences Institute, SSM Cancer Care, Ambulatory Surgery Center, Outpatient Procedure Center, Outpatient Diagnostic Center and Medical Office Building – is serving the needs of a rapidly expanding population in southwest St. Louis County. To learn more about the health center, visit ssmstclare.com.
For more information, contact:
Deborah Parker
Communications Specialist
SSM St. Clare Health Center
636-496-2523 (office)