Efficacy and Safety of Octagam® in Patients With Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.

Introduction: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a debilitating autoimmune neuropathy that is treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of the sucrose-free IVIG Octagam® (Octapharma AG, Lachen, Switzerland) in patients with CIDP.

Methods: Data from 47 patients who received at least one dose of Octagam were collected from the records of 11 centres in France.

[Bartonella hensalae encephalopathy].

Introduction: Bartonella hensalae is a poorly known cause of encephalopathy in young subjects.

Observation: A 17 year-old adolescent was admitted in a state of emergency because of frequent convulsive seizures and inter-critical drowsiness. The diagnosis of encephalopathy was made on the association of these clinical signs and electro-encephalographic abnormalities.

[Stabilized epilepsy in three adult cases of pachygyria].

In complex malformations of the neocortex due to neuronal migration disorders, epilepsy is usually intractable and is observed in childhood. The study of such malformations in adults is rare. Three adult cases are described with easily treated epilepsy controlled by one or two anti-epilectic drugs.

Brain involvement in Dengue fever.

During the 1994-1995 outbreak of dengue fever in New Caledonia (1079 cases), two cases of encephalopathy were seen. Both patients suffered transient clinical (drowsiness, confusion) and electroencephalographic disturbances from which they fully recovered. Although this condition has been described in dengue infection a number of different pathological mechanisms are probably implicated.