POLYNEUROPATHY IN HYPOTHYROIDISM - CLINICAL AND NERVE BIOPSY STUDY OF 4 CASES

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 215  (2) , 103-114
Abstract
Clinical and sural nerve biopsy findings are described in 4 hypothyroid patients with manifestations of a diffuse peripheral neuropathy. Clinical examination revealed distal sensory inpairment, complaints of burning and lancinating extremity pains, ataxia and a decrease of deep tendon reflexes with total ankle jerk loss. In 1 patient, signs of the peripheral neuropathy comprised the leading symptomatology of the underlying metabolic disorder. Light microscopy and EM investigations of the sural nerve biopsies revealed a marked reduction of myelinated fibers, affecting mainly the large myelinated axons. The histograms showed a pathological unimodal spectrum of myelinated fiber diameters. Dystrophic and degenerative changes in axons of all fiber classes and the presence of clusters of thinly myelinated small fibers suggest that neuroaxonal degeneration and incomplete regeneration may represent the major pathogenetic mechanism of the neuropathy in these hypothyroid patients.

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