Involvement of sensory fibres in axonal subtypes of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Background: Acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) and acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy (AMSAN) are due to an antiganglioside antibody mediated attack, thought to be restricted to motor fibres in AMAN. Sensory symptoms and minor sensory conduction abnormalities, however, have been reported in some AMAN patients.

Objective: To verify whether sensory fibres are truly spared in AMAN and whether AMAN and AMSAN represent a continuum.

Reversible conduction failure in pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

In two patients with the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant (PCB) of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), low amplitude distal compound muscle action potentials and partial motor conduction blocks normalized without development of excessive temporal dispersion within 4 weeks. Sensory nerve action potentials significantly improved in amplitude or, when absent, rapidly became recordable at follow-up. Besides axonal degeneration, PCB is characterized by reversible conduction failure in both motor and sensory fibers and is in the continuous spectrum of axonal GBS subtypes.

Pitfalls in electrodiagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome subtypes.

Objective: To electrophysiologically classify an Italian Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) population into demyelinating and axonal subtypes, to investigate how serial recordings changed the classification and to underline the pitfalls in electrodiagnosis of GBS subtypes.

Methods: The authors applied two current electrodiagnostic criteria sets for demyelinating and axonal GBS subtypes in 55 patients who had at least two serial recordings in three motor and sensory nerves.

Results: At first test, the electrodiagnosis was almost identical with both criteria: 65-67% of patients were classifiable as acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP), 18% were classifiable as axonal GBS, and 14-16% were equivocal.

A standardized clinical evaluation of patients affected by facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy: The FSHD clinical score.

To define numerically the clinical severity of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), we developed a protocol that quantifies muscle weakness by combining the functional evaluation of six muscle groups affected in this disease. To validate reproducibility of the protocol, 69 patients were recruited. Each patient was evaluated by at least five neurologists, and an FSHD severity score was given by each examiner.