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Assessment of experimental autoimmune neuritis in the rat by electrophysiology of the tail nerve
Author(s) -
Kafri Michal,
Drory Vivian E.,
Wang Ningshan,
Rabinowitz Ruth,
Korczyn Amos D.,
Chapman Joab
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
muscle and nerve
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.025
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1097-4598
pISSN - 0148-639X
DOI - 10.1002/mus.10011
Subject(s) - electrophysiology , nerve conduction velocity , medicine , neuritis , guillain barre syndrome , sciatic nerve , motor nerve , pathology , anatomy , anesthesia , immunology , surgery
The assessment of experimental autoimmune neuritis (EAN) by electrophysiological studies of the sciatic innervation of the plantar muscle may be complicated by local inflammation. We therefore utilized the tail nerve–muscle system to monitor disease progression in 20 rats with EAN and 10 control rats. Early changes were detected in motor nerve conduction velocity (32.06 ± 1.85 m/s versus 43.57 ± 3.98 m/s in controls, P < 0.001) at 15 days postimmunization (DPI), and conduction block (70.6 ± 9.4% compared to 12.4 ± 3.4%, P < 0.001) at 22 DPI. No consistent conduction block (22.4 ± 10.4%) was found in the plantar muscle measurements. The tail nerve response of EAN rats demonstrated severe temporal dispersion at 43 DPI, which returned to normal at 135 DPI, although motor nerve conduction velocity values were still lower than in controls (24.4 ± 0.9 m/s, P < 0.001). The tail nerve may be a useful addition to electrophysiological studies in this model of the Guillain–Barré syndrome. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 25: 51–57, 2002