[Significance of iliac crest biopsy in the diagnosis of immunovasculitis in neurologic disease pictures].

In the present study we evaluated and analysed 81 patients with mainly neurological symptoms in whom iliac crest biopsy was performed because of a suspected immunovasculitis. In 20 of these patients, an immunopathy could be verified via the iliac crest biopsy. The relevance, reliability and accuracy of iliac crest biopsy is compared with the corresponding properties of other conventional methods of biopsy and neurological examination. The clinical syndromes of patients with immunovasculitis are analysed and compared with those of a group without detectable immunovasculitis in the iliac crest biopsy sample. For immunovasculitides with neurological symptomatology, no typical complex of symptoms was seen compared with the control group which would support a suspected diagnosis of immunovasculitis. Four selected case histories are described in keyword style. It follows from the result of this study that iliac crest biopsy is a low-risk examination method which the patient can be expected to tolerate, which is far more accurate in respect of the specific question of an immunodisease such as immunovasculitis with a strongly predominant neurological syndrome, compared with all other conventional neurological examination methods including other biopsy methods.