An unusual neuropathy in a diabetic patient: evidence for intravenous immunoglobin-induced effective therapy.

We report the case of a 68-year old type-2 diabetic male patient who was admitted to hospital for progressive weakness in the right lower limb. Although his metabolic control was good, he lost more than 20 kg of weight. Despite intensive physio- and vitaminotherapy, his neurological condition kept on degrading with a severe amyotrophy and pain of the right thigh. He was unable to walk and to stand alone. Besides a yet known sensitive polyneuropathy, the electrophysiological study revealed an obvious motor involvement with signs of demyelination and axonal degeneration. Combined with the albuminocytologic dissociation observed in the cerebrospinal fluid, these specific clinical and electrophysiological features led us to postulate a diagnosis of inflammatory neuropathy. The patient underwent a treatment by methylprednisolone and immunoglobins that rapidly induced a striking improvement of his neurological condition. This case report illustrates that rare forms of neuropathy such as inflammatory neuropathies close to chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) can occur in diabetic patients and superimpose on the more commonly described forms of neuropathies. It recalls the importance of recognizing CIDP-like neuropathies because unlike other forms of neuropathy, inflammatory neuropathies are perfectly curable.

Sequestrum-like appearance of a multiple sclerosis brain lesion on serial magnetic resonance images.

Using serial magnetic resonance imaging, we monitored an unique lesion of the brain in a 15-year-old girl with clinically definite and laboratory-supported remitting-relapsing multiple sclerosis. During initial phases of the disease course, cystic necrosis around the plaque was observed. Later, remyelination of the central core of the lesion was speculated, as similarities in signal intensity between the core and the normal appearing white matter were partially recovered both on the T1- and the T2-weighted images.

Whipple's disease confined to the central nervous system.

We report a 49-year-old woman with a left parietal lesion, shown on CT and MRI as an isolated ring-enhancing mass. The diagnosis of cerebral Whipple's disease was made by brain biopsy; there were no gastrointestinal symptoms nor periodic-acid Schiff-positive inclusions in the jejunal mucosa. This case illustrates atypical Whipple's disease, confined exclusively to the central nervous system.

[Kufs disease with leukoencephalopathy]. / Maladie de Kufs avec leucoencéphalopathie.

We report a case of adult neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (Kufs' disease) with leukoencephalopathy on cerebral scan CT and MRI. A 52 year-old woman presented with partial complex epileptic seizure followed by progressive dementia, cerebellar ataxia, pyramidal and akineto-rigid signs and symptoms. After 6 years of evolution, cerebral stereotactic biopsies showed a diffuse gliosis of the white matter, but no clear demyelination. Nerve and glial cells contained numerous PAS+ autofluorescent granules. In the oligodendrocytes and astrocytes of the white matter these granules appeared electronmicroscopically as cytoplasmic osmiophilic lamellar bodies with fingerprint profile combined with some curvilinear and rectilinear aspects. The cortical nerve cells contained granular osmiophilic bodies. This "leukoencephalopathic" variant of Kufs' disease is probably related to the pigmentary type of orthochromatic leukodystrophy, wherein similar inclusions have been only described in the macrophages and glial cells of the white matter.

[Semiology of bismuth encephalopathy. Comparison with seven personal cases (author's transl)]. / Analyse sémiologique de l'encéphalopathie bismuthique. Confrontation avec sept cas personnels.

The authors analyze 99 well-described cases of bismuth encephalopathy and suggest a clinical syndrome according to three stages of the disease (before, during and after the acute period) and three clinical domains (psychiatry, neurology and neuropsychology). A particular attention concerns the presence of sequellar clinical signs (mnesic functions), sometimes observed one year after interruption of bismuth ingestion.