High incidence of subclinical peripheral neuropathy in myelitis with hyperIgEaemia and mite antigen-specific IgE (atopic myelitis): an electrophysiological study.

OBJECTIVE

To study subclinical involvement of the peripheral nerves in myelitis with hyperIgEaemia and mite antigen-specific IgE (atopic myelitis: AM).

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

We carried out a nerve conduction study of the median, ulnar, tibial, and sural nerves in 21 patients with AM and in 28 patients with clinically definite or laboratory-supported definite multiple sclerosis (MS).

RESULTS

The patients with AM showed a significantly higher frequency of abnormal records than the MS patients in the sensory nerve conduction study (52.4% vs. 14.3%, p = 0.0106). The frequency of abnormal records in the motor nerve conduction study in AM patients was twice as high as in MS patients (38.1% vs. 17.9%), but the difference was not statistically significant. Abnormality in the F-wave-evoked frequency in the median nerve was also significantly more common in AM patients than in MS patients (57.9% vs. 10.7%, p = 0.0016).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that subclinical peripheral neuropathy is frequent in patients with AM.