Abnormal vascular reflexes in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Vascular reflexes were assessed in 17 adult patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease using the Valsalva manoeuvre, and the pulse rate and systolic blood pressure responses to standing. Six patients showed abnormalities consistent with an autonomic neuropathy. One patient had giant nerve fibre bundles in the myenteric plexus of bowel resected for co-existent Crohn's disease, indicating histological involvement of these autonomic neurones. Other evidence of an autonomic component to the peripheral neuropathy of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease is reviewed.