Abstract
Randomized Controlled Trials have not jet established the best pharmacological management of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM). High dose steroids are usually employed with good results, but in a few cases the clinical outcome is poor. In other patients, particularly those affected by the site restricted ADEM variants (myelitis), the disease shows a recurrent course resembling that of Multiple Sclerosis. We present here five patients, 3 of them affected by classic disseminated encephalomyelitis and 2 by a post infectious myelitis, which showed a good response to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) after steroid treatment failure. In our report high dose steroids administration was substantially uneffective in all but one case, who showed a good response only during the first episode. On the contrary IVIg injection (0,4 gr/kg/day) produced a marked functional improvement in all patients starting within the first five days of drug administration and reaching a maximum within three weeks. One patient experienced a good effect nothwithstanding a steady dysability. In all cases, clinical evidence was supported by MRI controls showing improving posttreatment changes.
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Received: 11 April 2001, Received in revised form: 10 July 2001, Accepted: 16 July 2001
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Marchioni, E., Marinou-Aktipi, K., Uggetti, C. et al. Effectiveness of intravenous immunoglobulin treatment in adult patients with steroid-resistant monophasic or recurrent acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. J Neurol 249, 100–104 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00007836
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00007836