Chronic acquired neuropathies of unknown origin are classified as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathies (CIDP) and chronic idiopathic axonal polyneuropathies (CIAP). The diagnosis can be very difficult, although it has important therapeutic implications since CIDP can be improved by immunomodulating treatment. The aim of this study was to examine the possible abnormalities of noda...

BACKGROUND Apoptosis is one of the major mechanisms of CD4+ T-cell depletion in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. T cells in human inflammatory myopathies in HIV-negative individuals rarely undergo apoptosis. Currently, there is no information available concerning the fate of T cells in HIV-associated myositis and polyneuropathies. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether apoptosis occurs...

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN), and anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein (anti-MAG) neuropathy are three demyelinating acquired neuropathies, with distinct responses to immunotherapy. In placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trials, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has been effective for CIDP and MMN, and plasmapheresis...

The pathological differential diagnosis between potentially treatable autoimmune neuropathies and degenerative neuropathies is often difficult if major T-cell infiltrates are absent in sural nerve biopsies. Since it is suggested that macrophages play a central pathogenetic role in inflammatory neuropathies, we investigated the expression of macrophage differentiation antigens associated with ac...

Background Familial transthyretin amyloidosis is a life-threatening disease presenting with sensorimotor and autonomic polyneuropathy. Delayed diagnosis has a detrimental effect on treatment and prognosis. To facilitate diagnosis, we analyzed data patterns of patients with transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP) and compared them to polyneuropathies of different etiology for cli...