Clinical Characteristics and Treatment Response of Peripheral Neuropathy in the Presence of Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (Churg-Strauss Syndrome): Experience at a Single Tertiary Center.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) is a rare systemic small-vessel vasculitis accompanied by asthma, eosinophilia, and eosinophilic inflammation of various tissues including the peripheral nerves. This study investigated the clinical course and long-term outcomes of peripheral neuropathy in patients with EGPA. METHODS: Seventy-one patients with physician-diagnosed EGPA were identified at Samsung Medical Center between January 1995 and April 2014. Sixty-one of these patients were followed-up for more than 1 year and received corticosteroid therapy with or without intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse therapy for 6 to 18 months. Medical records of the 61 patients including demographic data, clinical features, laboratory and pathological findings, treatments, and outcomes were reviewed. RESULTS: Peripheral neuropathy as a manifestation of EGPA was present in 46 (75%) of the 61 patients. The mean follow-up duration of the patients with neuropathy was 6.4 years (range 1.2-18.8 years). The scores on the neurological functional disability scale before and after the combination treatment with corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide were 2.43±0.86 and 0.54±0.95 (mean±SD; p<0.001), respectively. The peripheral neuropathy relapsed in one patient. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term clinical outcome of peripheral neuropathy in patients with EGPA receiving initial corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide combination therapy was favorable with a very low relapse rate.

Neuroblastoma originating from extra-abdominal sites: association with favorable clinical and biological features.

Neuroblastomas originating from different sites might have different clinical and biological characteristics. In the present study, the clinical (age, sex and stage) and biological (N-myc amplification, Shimada pathology and levels of lactate dehydrogenase, ferritin and neuron-specific enolase) characteristics of patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma were compared according to the site of tumor origin (extra-abdominal versus abdominal). The event-free survival rate (EFS) was also compared between the two groups. Among 143 neuroblastomas, 115 tumors originated from the abdomen, 26 from extra-abdominal sites and 2 from unknown primary sites. Frequencies of stage 4 tumor and N-myc amplified tumor were lower in the extra-abdominal group than in the abdominal group (34.6% vs. 60.0%, P=0.019 and 4.2% vs. 45.0%, P<0.001, respectively). Levels of lactate dehydrogenase, ferritin and neuron-specific enolase were significantly lower in the extra-abdominal group than in the abdominal group. The probability of 5-yr EFS (+/-95% confidence interval) was higher in the extra-abdominal group than in the abdominal group (94.4+/-10.6% vs. 69.4+/-9.4%, P=0.026). Taken together, neuroblastomas originating from extra-abdominal sites might be associated with more favorable clinical and biological characteristics and a better outcome than neuroblastomas originating from abdomen.