EXPERIENCES WITH 10 PATIENTS

We treated 10 patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneu ropathy (CIDP) in a time period of 2 years with intravenous immunoglob ulins (Ig). All patients had a clinical, neurophysiological and CSF ex amination and fulfilled the AAN-criteria for CIDP. Infectious diseases or specific immunologic diseases were excluded. Clinical and neurophy siological follow-up was performed after an average 11 months (range 2 to 27 months). Ig therapy was effective in patients with a short hist ory of CIDP, severe segmental demyelination and only minor cytoalbumin ary dissociation, Ig treatment was not successful with a duration of > 12 months, in primary axonal lesions and with pronounced protein elev ation in CSF. Treatment with immunoglobulins may be a therapeutic opti on in subacute CIDP with conduction block.