Autoimmune thyroiditis and acquired demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and Miller-Fisher syndrome (MFS) are variant forms of acquired demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. Their concurrence w ith immune disorders of the thyroid is infrequent. We report on a 7.5-year- old girl in whom a subclinical thyroiditis was concurrently detected to GBS and a 70-year-old woman with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) who had recurren t MFS. Even though autoimmune thyroiditis is associated with many autoimmun e disorders more often than would be expected by chance alone, its concurre nce with immune disorders of the peripheral nerve is less frequently report ed. The calculated coincidental concurrence of acquired demyelinating poly radiculoneuropathy (in both variants, MFS and GBS) and autoimmune thyroidit is (as in the present cases) was extremely low (0.0004%), thus suggesting c ommon pathogenic mediators. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.