ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Identifying tumor infiltration or compression in patients with non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphoma presenting peripheral neuropathy can be a difficult task. METHODS: We collected a series of patients with peripheral neuropathy with demonstrated lymphomatous infiltration or compression managed between October 1977 and October 2001 to search for clinico-pathological correlations. RESULTS: Ten cases were reviewed. Neurological manifestations were the inaugural symptom of the disease in 7 patients. Clinical presentations included 5 focal (3 cranial nerve palsies, 2 brachial radiculopathies) and 5 diffuse neuropathies (3 polyradiculoneuropathies, 1 polyneuropathy and 1 mononeuritis multiplex). The mechanisms of peripheral nerve involvement were classified into lymphomatous meningoradiculitis (5 cases), involvement of cranial nerves or spinal roots in their extraneuraxial course (3 cases) and infiltration of distal peripheral nerves (2 cases). Four long lasting survivals after treatment were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Prognosis depends much more on the haematological disease than on the neurological symptoms or tumor location.
Subject(s)
Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin/physiopathology , Peripheral Nervous System Neoplasms/physiopathology , Adult , Aged , Antigens, CD/immunology , Cranial Nerve Diseases/epidemiology , Cranial Nerve Diseases/physiopathology , Electromyography , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin A/immunology , Immunoglobulin G/immunology , Immunoglobulin M/immunology , Immunohistochemistry , Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin/epidemiology , Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin/immunology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Male , Middle Aged , Peripheral Nervous System Neoplasms/epidemiology , Peripheral Nervous System Neoplasms/immunologyABSTRACT
To evaluate the usefulness of tau proteins as biological markers in the diagnosis of dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT), we analyzed the concentration of tau proteins in 253 cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from patients with or without neurological disorders. Our study showed a significant increase of the mean CSF tau concentration in DAT patients compared with that from non-DAT patients. Interestingly, a significative decrease of CSF tau in patients with frontotemporal dementia was found. We also observed a positive correlation between the CSF-tau concentration and the number of apoepsilon4 alleles. The CSF apolipoprotein E concentration was evaluated and revealed no variation between the groups, although we observed a significant correlation between CSF tau and apolipoprotein E in DAT patients.
