Refractory CIDP with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia responding to chemoimmunotherapy.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) has a variable clinical course with 15% remaining refractory to treatment. We report a woman with severe refractory CIDP and coexisting chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) who improved dramatically after chemoimmunotherapy appropriate for the CLL, including rituximab. A subsequent CIDP relapse after 15 months responded again to similar treatment, and the improvement has been maintained with 3-monthly rituximab infusions as sole ongoing therapy. The case suggests that CIDP refractory to conventional treatment may have associated pathology, in this case haematological malignancy, and that treating the malignancy can effectively treat the CIDP.

Reversible cerebellar oedema secondary to profound hypomagnesaemia.

Magnesium is the second most abundant intracellular cation. Deficiency can cause several neurological complications, including cerebellar syndromes, with various MRI findings. These include cerebellar oedema, presumably through a similar mechanism to that in posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES). People particularly vulnerable to deficiency include those with high alcohol consumption, excessive loss due to gastrointestinal pathology and those taking certain medications, including proton pump inhibitors. We report three patients with cerebellar syndromes associated with hypomagnesaemia. These cases support the previously reported association between hypomagnesaemia and reversible cerebellar dysfunction and illustrate the range of potential presentations. They highlight an uncommon but treatable cause of cerebellar ataxia that may present to acute neurological liaison services.

'The worm that got away': parainfectious atypical optic neuritis associated with schistosomiasis infection.

Although optic neuritis is commonly associated with multiple sclerosis, patients with atypical optic neuritis require further investigations to exclude other associated conditions. We report a woman presenting with cough, fatigue, atypical optic neuritis with chiasmitis. She responded partially to corticosteroids and we subsequently found she had a ground-glass lung nodule. Follow-up CT scan of thorax at 12 months showed new parenchymal lung lesions that suggested schistosomiasis. Further questioning by a respiratory physician identified, in retrospect, a previous exposure history; serological testing confirmed schistosoma infection. She was treated with praziquantel and slowly improved clinically, with radiological improvement in the optic chiasm, regression of the parenchymal lung lesions but with the ground glass nodule unchanged. We diagnosed parainfectious optic neuritis associated with schistosomiasis, based upon exposure history, serological confirmation and radiological features, together with the response to treatment, and having excluded other causes of an atypical optic neuritis.