[Electrophysiological diagnosis of inflammatory neuropathies]

Electrodiagnostic study is very important in the diagnosis of inflammatory neuropathies with clinical, biological or histopathological criterias. It initially affirms the existence of a neuropathy and then to define if the pathological process is demyelinating, axonal or more rarely mixed. It also specifies if it concerns only sensory fibers, motor fibers or both. This exploration thus will make it possible to define different sub-groups with, for each one, a possible etiological guidelines. In the subgroup of demyelinating neuropathies, except congenital neuropathies, the inflammatory neuropathies represent the main étiology with chronic infammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy as a model. In the group of axonal neuropathies, inflammatory etiology is not prevailing. But, according to the subtype of neuropathy (sensory, motor or mixed) and the possible asymmetrical presentation, it could be however possible to extract different electrophysiological entities and to guide the clinician towards various sub-groups among which the inflammatory etiologies are sometimes largely dominating (mononeuritis multiplex and ganglionopathies for example).