Presence and isotype of anti-ganglioside antibodies in healthy persons, motor neuron disease, peripheral neuropathy, and other diseases of the nervous system.

Antibodies of the IgM, IgG and IgA class against GM1, asialo-GM1, GD1b and GM2 gangliosides were determined in the sera of patients with motor neuron disease (MND), peripheral neuropathy, other neurological diseases (OND) and healthy individuals. Antibodies of the three immunoglobulin classes were present in healthy persons. MND patients did not differ from OND or controls in anti-GM1 titers of the three isotypes. In the group of peripheral neuropathy, no elevations of antibody titers were observed in patients with sensory or sensory-motor neuropathy; however, four out of 12 patients with the motor variety had very high levels of IgM or IgG antibodies. Two of these four patients also had increased titers of IgA antibodies, but no patients exhibited high titers restricted to this isotype.

Diagnosis by axilla skin biopsy in an early case of Lafora's disease.

Myoclonus, seizures and progressive dementia are the main clinical features in Lafora's disease. This is the first reported case in which the diagnosis has been made by axillary skin biopsy in a patient with myoclonus but no other neurological symptoms.

IgG anti-ganglioside antibodies and their subclass distribution in two patients with acute and chronic motor neuropathy.

IgG anti-ganglioside antibodies were found in two patients with motor neuropathy. The first patient had a chronic axonal neuropathy with persistently elevated anti-GM1 antibodies. The second patient had an acute axonal neuropathy with anti-GM1, GD1b and asialoGM1 antibodies. In both, the IgG subclass study showed that the antibodies belonged to the IgG1 subclass. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for light chains revealed anti-ganglioside antibodies of the lambda type.

[Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis as a form of presentation of anorectal melanoma]. / Carcinomatosis leptomeníngea como forma de presentación de un melanoma anorrectal.

We report a case of anorectal melanoma, whose first manifestation was a carcinomatous meningitis. The anorectal melanoma is a rare tumor of great malignity which represents 1-3 per cent of melanomas and 0.5 per cent of anorectal tumors. The most frequent symptoms are non-specific: rectal bleeding, pain at defecation, changes in the intestinal rythm. Sixty per cent of cases presented metastasis at the moment of diagnosis limited to the regional lymph nodes. In none of the cases published did the metastasis present as the first symptom. The case presented here manifested itself only with neurologic symptomatology compatible with carcinomatous meningitis whose finding led to the search of the original tumor, and this is what makes this case exceptional since the infrequency of this tumor is united to an unusual clinical presentation, not previously described in the literature.