Prognostic value of nerve ultrasonography: A prospective multicenter study on the natural history of chronic inflammatory neuropathies.

Background And Objective: Nerve ultrasound is a promising new tool in chronic inflammatory neuropathies. The aim of this study was to determine its prognostic value in a prospective multicenter cohort study including incident and prevalent patients with CIDP and MMN.

Methods: We enrolled 126 patients with CIDP, and 72 with MMN; 71 were treatment-naive.

Clinical outcomes in multifocal motor neuropathy: A combined cross-sectional and follow-up study.

Objective: To assess the clinical course of multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) in a large cohort of patients and to identify predictive factors of a progressive disease course.

Methods: Between May 2015 and February 2016, we collected clinical data from 100 patients with MMN, of whom 60 had participated in a nationwide cross-sectional cohort study in 2007. We documented clinical characteristics using standardized questionnaires and performed a standardized neurologic examination.

Nerve ultrasound can identify treatment-responsive chronic neuropathies without electrodiagnostic features of demyelination.

Introduction: We present a case series of six treatment-naive patients with clinical phenotypes compatible with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and multifocal motor neuropathy without electrodiagnostic features of demyelination but with abnormal peripheral ultrasound findings who responded to treatment.

Methods: All six patients underwent a complete set of ancillary investigations, including extensive nerve conduction studies. We also performed standardized nerve ultrasound of median nerves and brachial plexus as part of a larger effort to evaluate diagnostic value of sonography.

Neuropathy associated with immunoglobulin M monoclonal gammopathy: A combined sonographic and nerve conduction study.

Introduction: We assessed the specific sonographic pattern of structural nerve abnormalities in immunoglobulin M (IgM) neuropathy and disease controls.

Methods: We enrolled 106 incident patients-32 patients with IgM neuropathy, 42 treatment-naive patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, and 32 patients with axonal neuropathies. All patients underwent standardized ancillary testing in addition to standardized sonography of the brachial plexus and the large arm and leg nerves bilaterally.

Nerve ultrasound: A reproducible diagnostic tool in peripheral neuropathy.

Objective: To determine interobserver variability of nerve ultrasound in peripheral neuropathy in a prospective, systematic, multicenter study.

Methods: We enrolled 20 patients with an acquired chronic demyelinating or axonal polyneuropathy and 10 healthy controls in 3 different centers. All participants underwent an extensive nerve ultrasound protocol, including cross-sectional area measurements of median, ulnar, fibular, tibial, and sural nerves, and brachial plexus.

High-resolution ultrasound in patients with Wartenberg's migrant sensory neuritis, a case-control study.

Objective: Wartenberg's migrant sensory neuritis (WMSN) is a rare, patchy, pure sensory neuropathy of unknown etiology. High-resolution ultrasonography (HRUS) is an emerging diagnostic technique for neuropathies, but it has not been applied in WMSN. In this study we aimed to determine HRUS abnormalities in WMSN.

Diagnostic value of sonography in treatment-naive chronic inflammatory neuropathies.

Objective: To determine the diagnostic value of high-resolution ultrasound (HRUS) for detection of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), Lewis-Sumner syndrome (LSS), and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN).

Methods: Between January 2013 and January 2015, we enrolled 75 consecutive treatment-naive patients with chronic inflammatory neuropathies and 70 disease controls. We performed extensive nerve conduction and standardized HRUS studies bilaterally of large arm and leg nerves and brachial plexus.

Nerve sonography to detect peripheral nerve involvement in vasculitis syndromes.

Background: We sought to determine the usefulness of sonography in the detection of nerve involvement in patients with vasculitic neuropathy.

Methods: We enrolled 16 consecutive patients with vasculitic neuropathy (11 systemic vasculitis and 5 single organ peripheral nerve vasculitis), who met the diagnostic criteria of the Peripheral Nerve Society, and 16 disease controls with noninflammatory axonal polyneuropathy (10 cryptogenic, 4 metabolic, 2 hereditary). Patients underwent standardized nerve conduction studies and assessment of muscle strength (Medical Research Council scale), in addition to sonography of large arm and leg nerves, and brachial plexus.

Cold paresis in multifocal motor neuropathy.

Increased weakness during cold (cold paresis) was reported in single cases of multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN). This was unexpected because demyelination is a feature of MMN and symptoms of demyelination improve, rather than worsen, in cold. It was hypothesized that cold paresis in MMN does not reflect demyelination only, but may indicate the existence of inflammatory nerve lesions with permanently depolarized axons that only just conduct at normal temperature, but fail at lower temperatures.

Multifocal motor neuropathy.

Multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) is an immune-mediated disorder characterised by slowly progressive, asymmetrical weakness of limbs without sensory loss. The clinical presentation of MMN mimics that of lower-motor-neuron disease, but in nerve-conduction studies of patients with MMN motor-conduction block has been found. By contrast with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, treatment with prednisolone and plasma exchange is generally ineffective in MMN and even associated with clinical worsening in some patients.