BACKGROUND The authors previously proposed diagnostic criteria for neuromyelitis optica (NMO) that facilitate its distinction from prototypic multiple sclerosis (MS). However, some patients with otherwise typical NMO have additional symptoms not attributable to optic nerve or spinal cord inflammation or have MS-like brain MRI lesions. Furthermore, some patients are misclassified as NMO by the a...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) has been described as a disease clinically characterised by severe optic neuritis (ON) and transverse myelitis (TM). Other features of NMO include female preponderance, longitudinally extensive spinal cord lesions (>3 vertebral segments), and absence of oligoclonal IgG bands . In spite of these differences from multiple sclerosis (MS), the relationship between NMO and...

OBJECTIVE To determine the seroprevalence of neuromyelitis optica antibody (NMO)-IgG in Brazilian patients with clinical diagnosis of relapsing neuromyelitis optica, also known as Devic's disease. METHOD We determined NMO-IgG titers in 28 patients (25 of them females) that fulfilled the 1999 NMO diagnostic criteria proposed by Wingerchuk et al. RESULTS NMO-IgG was detected in 18 NMO patient...

BACKGROUND Rare diseases require integrated multicenter clinical networks to facilitate clinical research. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and NMO spectrum disorders (NMOSDs) are uncommon neuroinflammatory syndromes that are distinct from multiple sclerosis and associated with NMO-IgG, a serologic antibody against aquaporin 4. OBJECTIVE To develop a national multicenter NMO clinical consortium and...

OBJECTIVE Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) has been reported in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, there have been limited reports of peripheral neuropathy as a complication of neuromyelitis optica (NMO). In this paper, we showed the characteristics and differences between peripheral neuropathy as a complication of MS and NMO. METHOD We analyzed a series o...

     Neuromyelitis optica (also known as Devic's disease or Devic's syndrome) is an uncommon disorder in pediatric age group, and is characterized by acute or subacute optic neuritis and transverse myelitis. Here we report an 11- year- old female child with relapsing Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) confirmed by positive NMO- IgG antibody and had clinical recovery with high dose methyl prednisolone t...

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system caused by binding of pathogenic IgG autoantibodies (NMO-IgG) to astrocyte water channel aquaporin-4 (AQP4). Astrocyte damage and downstream inflammation require NMO-IgG effector function to initiate complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). He...

The pathogenesis of neuromyelitis optica (NMO) involves binding of IgG autoantibodies (NMO-IgG) to aquaporin-4 (AQP4) on astrocytes in the central nervous system (CNS). We studied the in vivo processing in mice of a recombinant monoclonal human NMO-IgG that binds strongly to mouse AQP4. Following intravenous administration, serum [NMO-IgG] decreased with t(½) ∼18 hours in wildtype mice and ∼41 ...

BACKGROUND Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) IgG is a specific marker for NMO. Furthermore, a high proportion of patients with longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis (characterized by spinal cord lesions extending 3 vertebral segments or more on magnetic resonance imaging) are seropositive for NMO-IgG and are considered to have a limited form of NMO. The NMO-IgG status in mild cases of acute par...