What is CIDP?
CIDP is defined thus: ‘chronic’ refers to the gradual course of the illness, often over a long period of time; ‘inflammatory’ means there is strong evidence that it is inflammation that causes the nerve damage; ‘demyelinating’ means that the damage is primarily to the insulating myelin sheaths around the nerve fibres and ‘polyradiculoneuropathy’; ‘poly’ means many, ‘radiculo’ means root, ‘neuro’ means nerve and ‘opathy’ means disease; so polyradiculoneuropathy means a disease of many peripheral nerves and their roots (which are the points of origin of the peripheral nerves from the spinal cord). The central nervous system is the brain and spinal cord and the role of the peripheral nerves is to bring in and take out the messages from the central nervous system to all parts of the body. CIDP is a very rare disease of the peripheral nervous system involving gradual development of weakness and loss of sensation, predominantly in the arms and legs. The incidence (the number of new cases eac
You may never call CIDP by its first name, but here it is: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. It’s a disease that affects the peripheral nervous system and is marked by progressive weakness and impaired sensation in the legs and arms. Symptoms include fatigue, tingling and numbness (starting in the toes and fingers), a feeling of weakness in the arms and legs, and other abnormal sensations. Each word in the name describes an aspect of the disease.
Some patients have a similar but longer-lasting illness called CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating poly[radiculo]neuropathy). CIDP, once known as ‘chronic GBS’, is now usually regarded as a related condition. Who can get GBS and CIDP? Anyone: young or old, male or female. The illnesses are neither hereditary nor contagious. GBS affects about l50 people every year in the United Kingdom; the incidence of CIDP is perhaps one tenth that of GBS. What causes GBS/CIDP? This is a matter of much research. About sixty percent of patients suffer from a throat or intestinal infection, influenza or stress symptoms in the previous two weeks. These infections trigger an incorrect response in the immune system which attacks the nerves. What are the symptoms? First symptoms are usually tingling and numbness in the fingers and toes with progressive weakness in the arms and legs during the next few days. In the mildest of cases, the weakness may arrest and cause only moderate difficulty in walking,
You may never call CIDP by its first name, but here it is: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy. It’s a disease that affects the peripheral nervous system and is marked by progressive weakness and impaired sensation in the legs and arms. Symptoms include fatigue, tingling and numbness (starting in the toes and fingers), a feeling of weakness in the arms and legs, and other abnormal sensations. Each word in the name describes an aspect of the disease. “Chronic” refers to the gradual course that CIDP follows. The next word refers to evidence that inflammation causes the damage. It is called “demyelinating” because the disease damages the fatty myelin sheath that coats and protects nerve cells and helps nerve fibers conduct electrical impulses. “Polyradiculoneuropathy” breaks down as a reference to the many (poly) nerve roots (radiculo) and nerves (neuro) that are affected by the disease (opathy). CIDP is a very rare disease: It is diagnosed in about 80 people per mil
CIDP, or Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, is a disorder that impacts both the central and peripheral nervous systems. While people of any age or gender can develop CIDP, the disorder usually strikes men who are under the age of 30. In some cases, CIDP may disappear as quickly as it developed and never trouble the individual again. In other cases, the disorder seems to return periodically throughout the life of the person. There is also the potential for lingering side effects from the disorder. The cause for CIDP appears to be a malfunction of the body’s immune system. Because the immune system fights anything perceived as a foreign substance to be a threat to the body, the system begins to produce antibodies in order to isolate and eventually eradicate the intruder. CIDP occurs when the immune system begins to identify the myelin sheath that surrounds the nerve fibers in the peripheral nervous system as a foreign substance. As the immune system seeks to destroy the s
