TY - JOUR KW - Action Potentials KW - Adult KW - Aged KW - Case-Control Studies KW - Electrodes KW - Humans KW - leprosy KW - Middle Aged KW - Nerve Fibers KW - Neural Conduction KW - Peripheral Nervous System Diseases KW - Sural Nerve AU - Arruda APM AU - Marques W AU - Foss N AU - Garbino J AU - Virmond M AU - Barreira AA AB -

Leprosy neuropathy is characterized by initial involvement of the small nerve fibers, later followed by involvement of the large fibers, when routine nerve conduction studies become abnormal. To increase the diagnostic yield and precocity of these studies, we applied the near nerve technique to the sural nerve of 8 leprosy patients. Contrary to our expectations, the main component of the sural nerve sensory action potential was abnormal in all patients, but the minimum conduction velocity originating from small 3-6 mm fibers was normal or only mildly involved in three patients. Also, although Schwann cells are the first to be involved in leprosy, the results are suggestive of axonal degeneration instead of demyelination. To better understand the neurophysiology and physiology of leprosy and to increase the accuracy and precocity of the diagnosis, it will be necessary to investigate patients in the very early stages of the disease and to correlate these findings with the corresponding nerve pathology.

BT - Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria C1 - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15334210?dopt=Abstract DA - 2004 Sep DO - 10.1590/s0004-282x2004000400001 IS - 3A J2 - Arq Neuropsiquiatr LA - eng N2 -

Leprosy neuropathy is characterized by initial involvement of the small nerve fibers, later followed by involvement of the large fibers, when routine nerve conduction studies become abnormal. To increase the diagnostic yield and precocity of these studies, we applied the near nerve technique to the sural nerve of 8 leprosy patients. Contrary to our expectations, the main component of the sural nerve sensory action potential was abnormal in all patients, but the minimum conduction velocity originating from small 3-6 mm fibers was normal or only mildly involved in three patients. Also, although Schwann cells are the first to be involved in leprosy, the results are suggestive of axonal degeneration instead of demyelination. To better understand the neurophysiology and physiology of leprosy and to increase the accuracy and precocity of the diagnosis, it will be necessary to investigate patients in the very early stages of the disease and to correlate these findings with the corresponding nerve pathology.

PY - 2004 SP - 571 EP - 4 T2 - Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria TI - Near nerve potential of sural nerve in leprosy. VL - 62 SN - 0004-282X ER -