Latent hyperthrophic polyneuropathy

Abstract

This chapter discusses the demyelination neuropathies, and remyelination of nerve fibers. The most dramatic and interesting of all the demyelinating neuropathies is the ‘idiopathic’ form, known also as the Guillain-Barre syndrome. Idiopathic polyradiculoneuritis condition occurs most commonly in an acute form, but it may sometimes become chronic or else exhibits a series of relapses following an initial remission. A paralysis frequently commences in the legs and spreads upward to involve the arms and the muscles of respiration. Sometimes the muscles, innervated by the cranial nerves, are also affected causing double vision together with difficulty in talking and swallowing and also some paralysis of the facial muscles. The pathological changes are most marked in the dorsal roots probably because of their vascularity, however, the peripheral nerves are also affected. The chapter discusses about peroneal muscular atrophy or Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a group of genetically determined disorders that eventually results in extreme weakness and wasting of the more distal muscles of the limbs with relatively good preservation of proximal ones. In the legs this differential involvement gives the thigh, the appearance of an inverted champagne bottle while the whole leg resembles that of a stork; pes cavus is also commonly found.