Clinicopathologic analysis of 124 biopsy-proven peripheral nerve diseases

We reviewed clinical, histological and ultrastructural findings of 124 case s of sural nerve biopsy specimens to delineate the trends of peripheral ner ve diseases in our institute. Eighty-one were men and 43 were women. We cat egorized them into five groups: specific diagnosis (66 cases, 53.2%), axona l degeneration type (47 cases, 37.9%), demyelinating type (4 cases, 3.2%), mixed axonal degeneration-demyelinating type (6 cases, 4.8%) and normal (1 case, 0.9%), Cases with specific diagnosis included 21 inflammatory demyeli nating polyneuropathy (15 chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculone uropathy, 6 Guillain-Barre disease), 13 hereditary motor and sensory neurop athy (7 Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 1, 6 Charcot-Marie-Tooth type II), 10 vasc ulitis, 6 toxic neuropathy, 4 leprosy, 3 diabetic neuropathy, 2 alcoholic n europathy, 1 Fabry's disease and other specific diseases (5 cases), In our cases, the proportion of specific diagnoses was higher, while the proportio n of demyelinating peripheral neuropathies and normal were lower than those of Western series. The results of this study indicate that 1) a close clin icopathologic correlation is important to make a precise diagnosis of perip heral nerve biopsy, 2) Biopsy under strict indication may reduce unnecessar y histologic examination, 3) There is no difference in disease pattern of p eripheral neuropathy between Western people and Koreans.