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POEMS syndrome is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome due to plasma cell neoplasm. It is a disorder involving multiple organs, mainly manifesting as demyelinating peripheral neuropathy. The major diagnostic criteria for the syndrome are polyradiculoneuropathy, clonal plasma cell disorder, sclerotic bone lesions, elevated vascular endothelial growth factor, and the presence of Castleman disease. Minor features include organomegaly, endocrinopathy, characteristic skin changes, papilledema, extravascular volume overload, and thrombocytosis. A good history and physical examination followed by appropriate testing-radiographic assessment of bones, measurement of vascular endothelial growth factor, bone marrow biopsy and electromyography can differentiate this syndrome from other conditions such as chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy, other plasma disorders (including amyloidosis, myeloma, and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance neuropathy). Early diagnosis and treatment could greatly improve the prognosis.
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The clinical manifestations and examination results of a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) admitted to the Department of Neurology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital,Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in August 2020 were analyzed, and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and assessment of apraxia were conducted. The neuropsychological characteristics of apraxia in CJD patient and the progress in the research and evaluation of apraxia were reviewed. The patient was a 65-year-old male with insidious onset and progressive symptoms, whose clinical manifestations were apraxia, rapidly progressing dementia, and extrapyramidal symptoms. The magnetic resonance imaging showed hyper-intense signal in diffusion weighted imaging in bilateral cerebral hemispheres, and 14-3-3 protein in cerebrospinal fluid was positive, which were consistent with the probable CJD diagnostic criteria. The patient exhibited prominent signs and symptoms of ideomotor apraxia. It has been reported in the literature that apraxia can also be the main neuropsychological manifestation of CJD. It is necessary to pay attention to the standard evaluation and timely identification of apraxia in clinical diagnosis.
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Peripheral nerve hyperexcitability syndromes (PNHS) encompass a spectrum of a heterogeneous condition with clinical as well as electrophysiological manifestations of peripheral nerve hyperexcitability. The PNHS consist of Isaacs syndrome, Morvan syndrome and Cramp-fasciculation syndrome, which cause widespread symptoms and signs while without evident peripheral nerve disease. Probably the most well-known condition of PNHS is Isaacs syndrome, often called acquired neuromyotonia. Clinical symptoms of PNHS are characterized by muscle twitching, cramps, stiffness, and neuropathic pain. The electrophysiological findings that are very useful in the diagnosis of PNHS are spontaneous myokymic, neuromyotonic, and cramp discharges. An overview of the history, clinical manifestations, pathophysiology, electrophysiological findings and management of PNHS is presented.
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Objective@#To summarize the clinical characteristics and nerve conduction damage in patients with early POEMS syndrome, and to explore the value of segment nerve conduction velocity in the diagnosis of POEMS syndrome. @*Methods@#A total of 73 patients with POEMS syndrome and 27 healthy controls in Peking Union Medical College Hospital from September 2009 to June 2019 were recruited in this study. The motor and sensory nerve conduction characteristics of median, ulnar, tibial, and peroneal nerves and the clinical features of the participants were analyzed. The analysis parameters included: (1) distal motor latency (DML), compound muscle action potential (CMAP); (2) the median velocity from elbow to wrist, the median velocity from axillary to elbow, the ulnar velocity from the site below elbow to wrist, the ulnar velocity from the site above elbow to below elbow, the ulnar velocity from axillary to the site above elbow, the tibial velocity from ankle to knee, the peroneal velocity from ankle to fibulae capitulum; (3) sensory nerve conduction velocity and amplitude of these nerves; (4) terminal latency indices (TLI) of median; (5) motor nerve conduction blocks. @*Results@#Peripheral nerve damages were the initial symptoms in thirty-two patients in this group, accounting for 43.8% (32/73), and 81.3% (26/32) of these patients only showed numbness in lower extremities. All POEMS syndrome patients with numbness had abnormal sensory nerve conduction, and 9.5% (7/73) of patients without sensory symptoms also had abnormal sensory nerve conduction. On the other hand, the decrease of CMAP amplitude corresponded to clinical muscle strength decline and motor dysfunction. In the patients with POEMS syndrome, motor nerve conduction in the lower limbs were more likely to be affected and the damages were more severe than in the upper limbs: the proportion of CMAP disappearance in the lower limbs and upper limbs was 47.6% (112/235) vs 2.8% (7/252; χ2=133.698, P<0.01). Sensory nerve conduction damage was more severe than motor nerve conduction: the proportion of amplitude disappearance in sensory and motor conduction was 43.0% (141/328) vs 24.4% (119/487; χ2=133.698, P<0.01). The slowing of motor nerve conduction velocity was more common than the decrease of CMAP amplitude: the rate of slowing down of motor nerve conduction was 88.7% (432/487), and the rate of decrease of amplitude was 52.8% (257/487; χ2=151.905, P<0.01). The DML of median and ulnar nerve in the POEMS syndrome group was longer than that in the control group (median nerve: 4.4 (3.7, 5.0) ms vs 3.2 (3.0, 3.5) ms, U=854.000, P<0.01; ulnar nerve: 3.1 (2.7, 3.8) ms vs 2.5 (2.2, 2.7) ms, U=1 077.500, P<0.01). The TLI of median nerve in patients with POEMS syndrome was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (0.40±0.11 vs 0.35±0.06, t=3.466, P=0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in nerve conduction velocity between the forearm segment and the upper arm segment in the POEMS group. @*Conclusions@#Neurological damages were common in patients with POEMS syndrome with sensory nerve damage often being the initial clinical manifestation. In patients with POEMS syndrome, the nerve damage in the lower limbs was more severe than in the upper limbs, and sensory nerve damage was more severe than motor nerve damage. Segmental motor nerve conduction results suggested that demyelination damage occurred earlier than axonal damage, and proximal lesions were slightly heavier than distal lesions. No conduction block was detected in these patients. These characteristics of segmental nerve conduction can provide more evidence for clinical diagnosis of POEMS syndrome.
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Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can cause adverse reactions in the nervous system, with the incidence rate ranging from 0.1% to 12%, and 80% occurring within the first 4 months of ICI application. It can cause lesions in various parts of the nervous system, including aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, necrotizing encephalitis, brainstem encephalitis, transverse myelitis and other central nervous system diseases. It can also cause cranial peripheral neuropathy, multifocal radicular neuropathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, spinal radicular neuropathy and myasthenia gravis, myopathy, etc. For these complications of the nervous system, diagnosis could be made by sufficient collection of disease manifestations combined with imaging, cerebrospinal fluid examinations, electro-encephalogram or electro myography to exclude infection or tumor progression. In the treatment of severe cases, ICIs should be discontinued and treated with high doses of glucocorticoid or gamma globulin with systemic support. After neurological adverse reactions, the prognosis of severe cases is poor.
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Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of rituximab in the treatment of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) encephalitis.Methods Three patients with anti-NMDAR antibodies in cerebrospinal fluid and serum hospitalized from May 2012 to July 2014 were retrospectively reviewed.The clinical syndrome,investigations,and therapeutic interventions by rituximab when first line immunotherapy failed were evaluated.Results All 3 patients were females with median age of 17 years (12,17,and 22 years).One patient had ovarian teratoma.All 3 patients presented with psychiatric symptoms and movement disorders,2 of which developed into a state of unresponsiveness.Brain magnetic resonance imaging of 2 patients was unremarkable,and 1 showed T2 and FLAIR hyperintensity among the areas of medulla,pons,caudex cerebri and callosum.Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose-PET showed variable multifocal cortical and subcortical abnormalities that changed during the course of the disease.Electroencephalograms were abnormal in all patients,showing non-specific,slow,and disorganised activity,1 showing extreme delta brush.The cerebrospinal fluid showed lymphocytic pleocytosis.All patients showed no response to treatment with first line immunotherapy (corticosteroids,intravenous immunoglobulin (400 mg · kg-1 · d-1 × 5 d,2-3 courses of treatment)).After the administration of rituximab,1 patient responded slower,whereas the other 2 patients who recovered dramatically (375 mg/m2 every week for 3-4 weeks) continued immunosuppression with mycophenolatemofetil for 1 year.Relapse occurred in 1 patient when the immunotherapies discontinued 6 months later.During the treatment of rituximab,2 patients had grade 3 infectious adverse events (hospitalization and intravenous administration of antibiotics).Conclusions Rituximab is effective for the patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis who fail to respond to the first line immunotherapy.However the utility of rituximab is still a challenge due to the risk of infectious complications and off-label use.
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Objective To determine whether peripheral nerve ultrasound can differentiate CharcotMarie-Tooth type 1 (CMT1) from chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP).Methods Eighteen patients with CIDP,13 patients with CMT1 and 16 healthy controls were recruited prospectively from Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2014 and July 2015 for this study.Ultrasonographic tests were performed via nerve tracing from wrist to axilla on median and ulnar nerve with a 10 MHz linear array probe.The cross sectional areas (CSAs) were measured at 10 defined sites of the nerves,respectively.Results CSAs (mm2) at all sites of median nerve were significantly increased in CMT1 than in CIDP (10.5 ±5.3 vs7.8 ±2.4,10.9 ±3.6 vs 6.8 ±1.9,11.5 ±5.0 vs7.3 ±1.8,13.5 ± 4.4vs7.2±2.5,16.0±4.5vs7.2±2.1,17.1±5.1vs7.0±2.8,21.0±4.5vs9.5±4.8,24.3±6.9 vs 9.5 ±4.3,23.9 ±6.0 vs 10.2 ±4.3,22.4 ±6.7 vs 9.8 ±2.1;t=2.141,4.766,2.935,4.858,6.715,6.602,7.148,7.100,8.078,6.498,respectively,all P ＜ 0.05).CSAs (mm2) at all sites of ulnar nerve were significantly increased in CMT1 than in CIDP (7.9 ± 1.8 vs 4.0 ± 1.3,8.9 ± 2.0 vs 4.9 ± 1.3,13.5±1.9 vs6.5±2.4,15.0±4.3 vs 6.5 ±1.5,15.8 ±4.4 vs 6.8 ±3.3,11.6±2.3 vs6.9± 3.1,10.2±3.2vs7.6±2.8,14.0±3.0vs6.6±2.1,19.2±3.7vs7.6±4.4,18.1±3.6vs6.3± 2.5;t =7.652,7.414,9.194,6.893,6.443,4.766,2.561,7.897,8.113,11.554,respectively,all P ＜ 0.05).CSAs at 8 sites of median nerve and 8 sites of ulnar nerve were significantly increased in CIDP than in healthy controls.Receiver operation characteristic curve analysis revealed that CSA was suited for differentiating CMT1 from CIDP,and the area under curve in 8 sites of median nerve and 9 sites in ulnar nerve was more than 0.9.Conclusions CSAs measured at different sites by peripheral nerve ultrasound in CMT1 were significantly increased than in CIDP.Measurement of CSAs by peripheral nerve ultrasound can be used for differentiating CMTI from CIDP.