Eaton-Lambert Syndrome

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Abstract
Sixty-three motor end-plates of the biopsied muscle fibers from four patients with Eaton-Lambert myasthenic syndrome were studied. Ultrastructural findings were characterized by (1) demyelination and remyelination of the preterminal intramuscular nerves; (2) degeneration and atrophy of the terminal axons; (3) widened junctional plates; (4) numerous elongated, widened, and irregularly ramified secondary synaptic clefts with vesicles subjacent to the postsynaptic membrane; and (5) "megaconial" mitochondria in the muscle fibers. The characteristic changes of the secondary synaptic clefts in Eaton-Lambert syndrome are thought to have resulted from repeated degeneration and regeneration of the terminal axons.