The aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channel antibody is used in the diagnosis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) due to its high sensitivity and high specificity. However, some patients are reported to have neither optic neuritis nor myelitis despite being positive for the AQP4-autoantibody (AQP4-Ab). Therefore, recent reports suggest that such patients should be diagnosed as having ‘AQP4-autoimmune syndrome’.
We report the case of a 31-year-old woman who presented with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) associated with Sjogren syndrome and distal renal tubular acidosis. She was hospitalized because of cervical transverse myelopathy and right optic neuritis. She had been clinically diagnosed with Sjogren syndrome, with a high titer of anti-SS-A antibody (1:500) and anti-SS-B antibody (1:498)
Background: A new autoantibody (termed NMO-IgG, or AQP4-Ab) has recently been described in patients with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and its formes frustes, longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (LETM) and recurrent optic neuritis (rON). However, AQP4-Ab has been found also in patients with co-existing rheumatic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or Sjogren’s syndrome (SS), conditions which are characterized by broad, polyspecific B cell activation
INTRODUCTION: Optic neuromyelitis or Devic’s syndrome is a very rare disease affecting the optic tracts and the spinal cord. Its association with evolving pulmonary tuberculosis has been reported in a handful of case reports.
Introduction: Vaccination in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) is generally considered to be safe. Riskbenefit analysis favors vaccination in MS patients, even though several reports of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), post-vaccination encephalitis, Guillain- Barr? syndrome or MS exacerbations following vaccination appear in literature. Quadrivalent HPV vaccination (Gardasil) is a relatively new vaccine, designed to prevent infection with HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 that has proven efficacy in the prevention of cervical, vulval and vaginal dysplasia, genital warts and cervical cancer