Spectrum of peripheral neuropathy in eastern India

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J Indian Med Assoc. 2006 Apr;104(4):168, 170-3.

Spectrum of peripheral neuropathy in eastern India.

Ghosh B, Sengupta S, Bhattacharjee R, Pal S, Saha SP, Ganguly G,

Ganguly PK, Das SK, Roy T.

BR Singh Hospital and Centre for Medical Education and Research,

Kolkata 700014.

Peripheral neuropathies constitute an important group of disorders in

neurological practice. Very few systematic studies on peripheral

neuropathies are available from India. Hence we conducted a

prospective study in two large hospitals from Kolkata, the biggest

city of eastern India in order to find out the spectrum of peripheral

neuropathy.

This prospective study was carried out from June 1998 to January 2003

on admitted patients with symptoms and signs of peripheral

neuropathy. Two hundred and twenty-five patients were evaluated (one

hundred and twenty-five from an industrial hospital and one hundred

from an academic tertiary care institution at Kolkata).

Result showed that most of the cases of peripheral neuropathy

belonged to fourth decade with men dominance. Common varieties of

neuropathy were Guillain-Barre syndrome, diabetes mellitus,

hereditary motor sensory neuropathy, chronic inflammatory

demyelinating neuropathy, drugs and toxin related. Unusual varieties

were Isaacs's syndrome and X-linked hereditary motor-sensory

neuropathy.

One case of neuropathy due to Plasmodium vivax has received

intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. The type of peripheral neuropathy

in hospital-based patients in eastern India was similar to other

parts of country excepting some sporadic types due to infective or

genetic causes and a large number of cases of undetermined aetiology

exist despite detailed investigations.