Demyelinative Neuropathy and Myelin Antibodies

Abstract

There are two major groups of acquired demyelinative neuropathies — acute and chronic. The acquired demyelinative neuropathies constitute about 40 per cent of all cases of polyneuropathy in adults¹ and share a distinct pattern of clinical, electrophysiologic, and pathologic features. These features include elevated protein levels in the cerebrospinal fluid, marked slowing of conduction velocities, dispersion of evoked responses, frequent evidence of conduction block, low-grade inflammatory changes in nerve detected pathologically, and histopathological findings of demyelination-remyelination. The neuropathy may be chronic, with either a slowly progressive² or a relapsing³ course, or it may evolve acutely and be monophasic, as in . . .