Nerve sonography in multifocal motor neuropathy and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

Abstract

The quantitative ultrasound characteristics (USC) of the median, ulnar nerve at different levels and the spinal nerves in patients with multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN; n=13; 40,4 ± 12,6 years old) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP; n = 7; 47,3 ± 11,2 year old) did not reveal statistical difference in cross sectional area (CSA) between analyzed groups. Patients with MMN have more pronounced asymmetry of CSA in comparison with CIDP patients which have a symmetrical pattern of diffuse nerve involvement. Quantitative USC has shown to be not informative enough in differentiation of MMN and CIDP. The qualitative analysis (QA) according to 3 described types of nerve changes has shown that CIDP is characterized by the prevalence of type 3 pattern (85.8 %) while MMN – by type 2 (69.2 %). The sensitivity and specificity of proposed QA patterns in nerve USC need to be analyzed in additional investigations