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Old 03-19-2012, 10:35 AM
Stellatum Stellatum is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,215
10 yr Member
Stellatum Stellatum is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,215
10 yr Member
Default MG or atypical CIDP/inflammatory polyneuropathy

I am starting a new thread to call attention to bny806's diagnosis, which she shares below in the "double vision" thread. Thanks for telling us. I'm so sorry to hear you have such a difficult disease.

CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy) is a chronic form of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. It's an autoimmune disease that attacks the nerve sheaths of the peripheral nervous system (MS is similar, but it attacks the central nervous system). A lot of the symptoms of CIDP are similar to symptoms of MG, so anyone who is in diagnostic limbo should ask about it, especially if in addition to intermittent muscle weakness they have numbness, tingling, muscle twitching (fasciculations), or dizziness. All of these can be (but aren't necessarily) symptoms of CIDP.

I wanted to say that those symptoms (numbness, tingling, twitching and dizziness) are not usually MG symptoms, but I am trying to be cautious. I know that MG patients have a lot of atypical symptoms. Muscle twitching, for example, doesn't show up on lists of MG symptoms, but I think there are people here who experience it. Similarly, dizziness isn't on the list, but I know from my own experience that weak neck muscles can make you feel dizzy. So I'm not saying that these symptoms rule out MG, or that they indicate CIDP.

Abby
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"Thanks for this!" says:
bny806 (03-19-2012), pingpongman (03-19-2012)