[Mechanisms of functional disorders of the autonomic nervous system in Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome].

The authors have examined the status of sympathetic innervation of the skin structures (by measuring the amplitude and latent period of the appearance of the evoked skin sympathetic potential, ESSP) and the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system (by examining the R-R intervals of the ECG at rest and in various functional tests) in 9 patients with the Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, 10 normal subjects, and in 20 myasthenic patients (a control group). All patients examined before the treatment and 7 patients who were examined following the administration of corticosteroid therapy presented disorders of the latent period and/or the amplitude of ESSP, up to its total absence, as well as signs of cardiac arrhythmias indicative of a marked dysfunction of the cholinergic structures of the peripheral nerves. No correlation has been elicited between the depth of identified vegetative disturbances and the presence of clinical and electromyographic indicators of polyneuropathy. Medicamentous tests serve to confirm the synaptic nature of cholinergic disorders.