Treatment of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy

Abstract

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is a sporadically occurring, acquired neuropathic condition of autoimmune origin with chronic progressive or relapsing-remitting disease course. CIDP is a treatable disorder; a variety of immunosuppressive and immunomodulatory agents are available to modify, impede, and even reverse the neurological deficits and sequelae that manifest in the course of the disease. However, in many cases CIDP is not curable. Challenges that remain in the treatment of CIDP patients are well recognized and include a remarkably individual heterogeneity in terms of disease course and treatment response as well as a lack of objective and feasible measures to predict and monitor the responsiveness to the available therapies. In this chapter an overview of the currently used drugs in the treatment of CIDP patients is given and some important and controversial issues that arise in the context of care for CIDP patients are discussed.

Keywords: B cells; CIDP; IVIg; T cells; animal model; autoantibodies; complement; immunomodulatory agents; pathogenesis.