Summary
We report the quantitative and qualitative, light and electron microscopic studies, including teased fiber preparations of nerve biopsies obtained from eight patients, treated with almitrine, presenting with the characteristic association of a sensory peripheral neuropathy with a recent body weight loss. The data were consistent with (1) an axonal damage affecting (a) myelinated fibers, predominantly large ones and (b) to a lesser degree unmyelinated fibers, (2) some degree of segmental demyelination. Marked axonal regeneration was observed when the nerve biopsy was delayed after withdrawal of the drug, Microangiopathy secondary to the formation of concentric lamellae from the basement membrane was observed in five patients suffering from chronic hypoxemia. Almitrine is an agonist of the chemoreceptors. The pathogenesis of the toxic neuropathy induced by this compound remains obscure. Clinical features do not fit with a purely hypoxic mechanism at the origin of the neuropathy.
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This work has been the subject of preliminary communications at the 62th meeting of the American Association of Neuropathologists, Minneapolis, June 1986 (abstract no 159) and the 71th meeting of the British Neuropathological Society, Brighton, July 1986
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Gherardi, R., Baudrimont, M., Gray, F. et al. Almitrine neuropathy. Acta Neuropathol 73, 202–208 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00693790
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00693790