Who has heard from Fanfaire? Is she caught in the ice storm? There are areas without any power.

Hi Mel,

I wish it was that simple. It isn't. They have not isolated the genes that cause most of this stuff. So the answer to your question, will your son get this is, is, no one knows.

There are some diseases, such as 'distal myopathies' and 'adult onset muscular dystrophies' that come with small fiber neuropathy, not CIDP, that have been tracked in families. Some of these have fairly predictable patterns. Just for example take Duchenes Muscular Dystrophy, which is a muscle disease. Of course, nerves die too. That is passed from carrier mother to son with a 50/50 chance and they get the gene. It is a fatal disease for males, females become carriers if they get the gene, altho they may manifest symptoms not as severe as males.

There are a few diseases, Duchene's is not one, that have small fiber neuropathy, as one of the symptoms. (NOT CIDP). Some of those muscle diseases cross over to neuro diseaes, are hereditary, and are being re-examined.

It is these diseases about which I speak....PN is not one entitity.

CIDP could probably have it's own forum, so could many of the diseases which have many types of PN as just one symptom of the disease.

PN entails many types of disease process, many different changes in the neural cells, many different patterns.

I would not worry about your son inheriting CIDP from Allen. Also, the diagnostics when Allen's mother was diagnosed with GB were less specific.

We have to adjust our thinking to new technology and understand that diagnoses, that disease categories, are not all as clear as it once seemed. Two people with identical symptoms could conceivably carry different diagnoses, both of them valid.

The cause of CIDP has not been identified, but they have found it responds to IVIG, which is wonderful news.

Any substantial genetic/hereditary link would seem to have manifested itself by now. They don't seem to feel that CIDP is hereditary, as it is not presenting in families in any substantial number or pattern.

I had some testing done only due to a very specific disease entity that travels in 72 pedigrees, from a very specific location, from which one of my grandparents likely came and the chain goes back 400 years, with intermarraige of these family units.

When all is said and done, it will likely be negative, so my eggs are not in that basket.

It is the same thing as for Ashkenazi people, they have a good knowldge base in terms of what that population carries in terms of hereditary disease...an example is 'Familial Dysatautonomia', another Tay Sachs, etc.


I hope this clears this up.

Heredity and genetics is just not that simple.

I did post a thread on genetic testing.....didn't get any comments on that thread. Genetics and heredity is taking over the Fainfaire testing oddessy....lets move this discussion to the one I started regarding genetic testing.