BACKGROUND: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a serious idiopathic inflammatory demyelinating disorder characterized by acute transverse myelitis and optic neuritis. A significant proportion of NMO patients are seropositive for NMO-IgG, an autoantibody targeting aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel. Paraneoplastic NMO associated various tumors were recently reported.
Background: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is assumed to be immunologically distinct from multiple sclerosis (MS). Adequate studies about cytokines and chemokines in NMO have been lacking.Objective: To investigate the contribution of cytokines/chemokines in the pathogenesis of NMO.Methods: We measured 27 cytokines/chemokines and Th17 cell-associated cytokines in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of 31 NMO, 29 MS and 18 other non-inflammatory neurological disorders patients. The serum levels of some cytokines/chemokines were also measured.
BACKGROUND: In 70-80% of cases, neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is associated with highly specific serum auto-antibodies to aquaporin-4 (termed AQP4-Ab or NMO-IgG).
BACKGROUND: Interferon-β-1b (IFNβ-1b) has been used to prevent exacerbation of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) including optic-spinal multiple sclerosis (OSMS) in Japan. We encountered 2 patients with OSMS with unexpectedly severe exacerbation soon after the initiation of IFNβ-1b therapy. The experience urged us to retrospectively review the patients with RRMS who had been treated with IFNβ-1b to identify similar cases.
BACKGROUND: Antibodies to aquaporin-4 (AQP4-Ab) are found in 60-80% of patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a severely disabling inflammatory CNS disorder of putative autoimmune aetiology, which predominantly affects the optic nerves and spinal cord.OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of AQP4-Ab in patients with optic neuritis (ON), and to investigate the prognostic implications of AQP4-Ab seropositivity in such patients.
Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a neurologic disease characterized by severe optic neuritis, longitudinally extended, transverse myelitis and serum aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody. Our recent neuropathological study revealed the extensive loss of AQP4 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte-specific protein, in NMO lesions, but not in MS lesions, suggesting that severe astrocytic damage or dysfunction may be related to the pathogenesis of NMO. Here we report a patient of NMO, in which the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of GFAP were measured both during relapse of myelitis and after high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone (HIMP).
PURPOSE: Recent immunopathologic and MRI findings suggest that tissue damage in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is not limited to spinal cord and optic nerve, but also in brain.
OBJECTIVE: Resting-state brain activity in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients can give clues to the pathophysiology of the disorder, and may be helpful in diagnosis; however, it has been less explored using functional MRI (fMRI). In the current study, we used a regional homogeneity (ReHo) method to investigate NMO-related modulations of neural activity in the resting state. METHODS: Resting-state fMRIs acquired in 17 NMO patients as well as in 17 age- and sex-matched normal controls were compared.
Although human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-associated myelopathy, or tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), is usually considered as a progressive myelopathy, a subacute variant has been described. It is unusual for optic neuritis (ON) to be associated with an HTLV-1 infection
INTRODUCTION: Loss of aquaporin 4 and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) with necrosis and demyelination is a prominent pathologic feature of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). However, the clinicopathologic significance of astrocytic damage and its relation with demyelination are unknown
OBJECTIVES: Longitudinal myelitis in patients with Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) is a rarely reported occurrence. Here, we present a patient with longitudinal myelitis who was found to have both primary SS and a positive antibody to aquaporin-4 (NMO-IgG). We review the recent literature concerning the overlap between primary SS-associated myelitis and the presence of NMO-IgG, suggestive of a neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD).
Devic neuromyelitis optica (DNMO) is a severe demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS).