Inflammatory neuropathy with evidence of anti-GQ1b antibodies in angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL): a case report

Ultrasound has been used for visualizing peripheral nerve pathology. Our goal was to use ultrasound to quantitate the sizes of upper extremity nerves along their length in control subjects and patients with neuropathy. We measured median and ulnar nerve cross-sectional areas (NCSA) in the arms of 190 subjects, including 100 with neuropathies and 90 controls. We found that NCSAs in healthy child and adult controls were greater with increasing height, at proximal sites, and at sites of entrapment. Nerves were enlarged in all Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT-1A) (11 of 11; 100%), most chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) (31 of 36; 86%), half of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (8 of 17; 47%), but few axonal neuropathy (7 of 36, 19%) subjects. In GBS, nerve enlargement occurred early and with minimal electrodiagnostic abnormalities in some patients. We conclude that NCSA measured by ultrasound is a quantifiable marker of nerve features that should be corrected for patient characteristics and nerve site. NCSA is generally larger in demyelinating than it is in axonal polyneuropathies.

The International Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma Project was undertaken to better understand the subtypes of T-cell and natural killer (NK) -cell lymphomas.

Background: Diagnostic criteria for the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have been available since 1978. Since then, several variants have been described. More recently, a distinction has been made between pure motor forms, severe sensory forms, primary axonal and primary demyelinating varieties. Associations of clinical characteristics, and specific infections and the presence of antiganglioside antibodies have been found. For further studies on GBS, it is therefore necessary to reconsider the available diagnostic criteria and add additional criteria for subclassification. Methods: A panel of (20) experts was formed. The literature representing the recent developments in GBS subclassification was reviewed. Following a consensus protocol, diagnostic and classification criteria were formulated. Results: The diagnosis of GBS can usually be made on clinical characteristics. A schedule for subclassification has been made to cover also the clinical variants in a systematic manner.