Search

ObjectiveTo compare disease course in patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) with a poor prognosis who were treated with one or with two intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) courses.MethodsFrom the International GBS Outcome Study, we selected patients whose modified Erasmus GBS Outcome Score at week 1 predicted a poor prognosis. We compared those treated with one IVIg course to those treated with two IVIg courses. The primary endpoint, the GBS disability scale at 4 weeks, was assessed with multivariable ordinal regression.ResultsOf 237 eligible patients, 199 patients received a single IVIg course. Twenty patients received an ‘early’ second IVIg course (1–2 weeks after start of the first IVIg course) and 18 patients a ‘late’ second IVIg course (2–4 weeks after start of IVIg). At baseline and 1 week, those receiving two IVIg courses were more disabled than those receiving one course. Compared with the one course group, the adjusted OR for a better GBS disability score at 4 weeks was 0.70 (95%CI 0.16 to 3.04) for the early group and 0.66 (95%CI 0.18 to 2.50) for the late group. The secondary endpoints were not in favour of a second IVIg course.ConclusionsThis observational study did not show better outcomes after a second IVIg course in GBS with poor prognosis. The study was limited by small numbers and baseline imbalances. Lack of improvement was likely an incentive to start a second IVIg course. A prospective randomised trial is needed to evaluate whether a second IVIg course improves outcome in GBS.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim was to assess the therapeutic potential of bortezomib in the treatment of refractory N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antibody encephalitis and its potential in other immune-mediated, B-cell-driven neurological diseases. METHODS: Two cases of severe NMDAR antibody encephalitis, resistant to first and second line therapy with steroids, intravenous immunoglobulins, plasma exchange, cyclophosphamide and rituximab, were treated with four and five cycles of 1.3 mg/m2 bortezomib at 350 and 330 days following initial presentation. RESULTS: Both patients showed significant clinical improvement with reductions of NMDAR antibody titres following bortezomib treatment. This is the first case in the literature where the NMDAR antibody level was undetectable following treatment with bortezomib. CONCLUSION: Bortezomib's unique ability to target long-lived autoreactive plasma cells appears to be a useful adjunct to standard second line immunosuppressive therapy in treatment-refractory NMDAR antibody encephalitis. The drug's pharmacodynamics, cell targeting and mechanism of action are reviewed, and it is postulated that bortezomib may be useful in a host of B-cell-driven neuroimmunological diseases.

© The Author 2015.Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (NGS) was used to diagnose an unusual and fatal case of progressive encephalitis in an immunocompromised adult presenting at disease onset as bilateral hearing loss. The sequencing and confirmatory s

See Martinez-Martinez et al. (doi:10.1093/brain/awu153) for a scientific commentary on this article. Carvajal-González et al. describe the first prospective cohort of patients with glycine receptor antibodies. The majority have progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity and myoclonus. The antibodies bind to extracellular determinants on glycine receptor-α1 and to glycine receptors on spinal cord and brainstem neurons. The patients make a good recovery with immunotherapies., The clinical associations of glycine receptor antibodies have not yet been described fully. We identified prospectively 52 antibody-positive patients and collated their clinical features, investigations and immunotherapy responses. Serum glycine receptor antibody endpoint titres ranged from 1:20 to 1:60 000. In 11 paired samples, serum levels were higher than (n = 10) or equal to (n = 1) cerebrospinal fluid levels; there was intrathecal synthesis of glycine receptor antibodies in each of the six pairs available for detailed study. Four patients also had high glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (>1000 U/ml), and one had high voltage-gated potassium channel-complex antibody (2442 pM). Seven patients with very low titres (

The Medical Research Council grading system has served through decades for the evaluation of muscle strength and has been recognized as a cardinal feature of daily neurological, rehabilitation and general medicine examination of patients, despite being respectfully criticized due to the unequal width of its response options. No study has systematically examined, through modern psychometric approach, whether physicians are able to properly use the Medical Research Council grades. The objectives of this study were: (i) to investigate physicians' ability to discriminate among the Medical Research Council categories in patients with different neuromuscular disorders and with various degrees of weakness through thresholds examination using Rasch analysis as a modern psychometric method; (ii) to examine possible factors influencing physicians' ability to apply the Medical Research Council categories through differential item function analyses; and (iii) to examine whether the widely used Medical Research Council 12 muscles sum score in patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy would meet Rasch model's expectations. A total of 1065 patients were included from nine cohorts with the following diseases: Guillain-Barre syndrome (n = 480); myotonic dystrophy type-1 (n = 169); chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (n = 139); limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (n = 105); multifocal motor neuropathy (n = 102); Pompe's disease (n = 62) and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined related polyneuropathy (n = 8). Medical Research Council data of 72 muscles were collected. Rasch analyses were performed on Medical Research Council data for each cohort separately and after pooling data at the muscle level to increase category frequencies, and on the Medical Research Council sum score in patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. Disordered thresholds were demonstrated in 74-79% of the muscles examined, indicating physicians' inability to discriminate between most Medical Research Council categories. Factors such as physicians' experience or illness type did not influence these findings. Thresholds were restored after rescoring the Medical Research Council grades from six to four options (0, paralysis; 1, severe weakness; 2, slight weakness; 3, normal strength). The Medical Research Council sum score acceptably fulfilled Rasch model expectations after rescoring the response options and creating subsets to resolve local dependency and item bias on diagnosis. In conclusion, a modified, Rasch-built four response category Medical Research Council grading system is proposed, resolving clinicians' inability to differentiate among its original response categories and improving clinical applicability. A modified Medical Research Council sum score at the interval level is presented and is recommended for future studies in Guillain-Barre syndrome and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy.