Antibodies against the node of Ranvier: a real-life evaluation of incidence, clinical features and response to treatment based on a prospective analysis of 1500 sera.

Introduction: IgG4 antibodies against neurofascin (Nfasc155 and Nfasc140/186), contactin (CNTN1) and contactin-associated protein (Caspr1) are described in specific subtypes of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP). Our objective was to assess, in a real-life practice, the incidence, the clinical features and the response to treatment of these forms of CIDP.

Methods: 1500 sera of patients suspected of having CIDP from France, Belgium and Switzerland were prospectively tested using a flow cytometry technique.

Electrophysiological features of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy associated with IgG4 antibodies targeting neurofascin 155 or contactin 1 glycoproteins.

Objective: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies (CIDP) with antibodies against neurofascin 155 (Nfasc155) or contactin-1 (CNTN1) have distinctive clinical features. Knowledge on their electrophysiological characteristics is still scarce. In this study, we are investigating whether these patients have specific electrophysiological characteristics.

Peripheral neuropathy in association with an ovarian dysgerminoma.

Background: Peripheral neuropathy among women with ovarian dysgerminoma has not been so far reported in the literature.

Case: We report a case of an 18-year-old woman with an association of an abdominal relapse of an ovarian dysgerminoma and a polyradiculoneuritis. The normality of neurologic investigations and the disappearance of all sensitive and muscular alterations after tumor ablation and one cycle of chemotherapy are in favor of a paraneoplastic syndrome.

Plasma and cerebrospinal fluid human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) RNA levels in HIV-related cognitive impairment.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels were prospectively measured by the Roche Amplicor Monitor polymerase chain reaction assay in 30 HIV-1 infected patients without central nervous system opportunistic infections. All participants completed a global neuropsychological battery consisting of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale. Additional tests were used to better characterize the type of cognitive changes with a specific reference to frontal lobe function.

Effects of anterior cingulate cortex lesions on ocular saccades in humans.

Cerebral blood flow studies in humans suggest that the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) could be involved in eye movement control. In two patients with a small infarction affecting the posterior part of this area (on the right side) and in ten control subjects, we studied several paradigms of saccadic eye movements: gap task, overlap task, antisaccades (using either a 5 degrees or 25 degrees lateral target), memory-guided saccades with a short (1 s) or long (7 s) delay, and sequences of memory-guided saccades. Compared with controls, patients had normal latency in the gap task but increased latency in the other tasks.