Managing non-paraneoplastic Lambert–Eaton myasthenic syndrome: Clinical characteristics in 25 German patients

Pellkofer, Hannah L.; Armbruster, Lena; Linke, Rainer; Schumm, Friedrich; Voltz, Raymond

doi:10.1016/j.jneuroim.2009.09.017

« Previous Next »Journal of Neuroimmunology
Volume 217, Issue 1 , Pages 90-94, 10 December 2009

Managing non-paraneoplastic Lambert–Eaton myasthenic syndrome: Clinical characteristics in 25 German patients

Hannah L. Pellkofer
- Institute for Clinical Neuroimmunology, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 89 7095 4436; fax: +49 89 7095 7435.
Lena Armbruster
- Institute for Clinical Neuroimmunology, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany
Rainer Linke
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany
- Present address: Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
Friedrich Schumm
- Clinic for Neurology and Neurophysiology Christophsbad, 73035 Göppingen, Germany
Raymond Voltz
- Institute for Clinical Neuroimmunology, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, 81377 Munich, Germany
- Department of Palliative Care, University of Cologne, 50924 Cologne, Germany

Received 8 June 2009; received in revised form 1 September 2009; accepted 25 September 2009. published online 15 October 2009.

Abstract

In about 40% of patients LEMS is not a paraneoplastic phenomenon (NT-LEMS). Several clinical aspects important to these patients remain open, especially the question when a LEMS can definitely be diagnosed as NT-LEMS. Here we describe a series of 25 German NT-LEMS patients regarding their clinical characteristics, duration of symptoms, value of serological markers, paraneoplastic antibodies and FDG-PET/CT. Furthermore, we discuss the current diagnostic criteria of NT-LEMS.

Keywords: LEMS, FDG-PET, Non-paraneoplastic