Detection of serum anticerebellar antibodies in patients with Miller Fisher syndrome

We performed Western blot analysis to detect anticerebellar antibodies in t he serum of patients with Miller Fisher syndrome (MFS), We studied 7 MFS pa tients, 6 Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) patients and 10 normal healthy pers ons as controls. Six MFS patients (86%) had IgG antibodies against mouse ce rebellar protein, whereas 3 GBS patients (50%) and 4 healthy controls (40%) had antibodies. The mean number of antibodies in the serum of patient with MFS was 2.43, which was significantly more than that of GBS patients (mean 0.67) and healthy control (mean 0.70), This finding suggests variability a nd complexity of target in nervous systems that suffer aberrant immunity in MFS, and may also reflect the variability and heterogeneity of the pathoge nesis of this syndrome. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG, Basel.