Use of intravenous gamma globulins in neuroimmunologic diseases.

Latov N, Chaudhry V, Koski CL, Lisak RP, Apatoff BR, Hahn AF, Howard JF Jr. Columbia University, New York, NY.

Intravenous gamma globulin (IVIg) is used in the treatment of immunologic diseases that affect the entire neuroaxis, including the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscles, and neuromuscular junction. The panel reviewed the available literature on the use of IVIg in order to evaluate the efficacy of this therapy in neuroimmunologic diseases. In prospective, rigorously controlled, double-blinded clinical trials, IVIg was found to have proven efficacy in the Guillain-Barre syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, multifocal motor neuropathy, dermatomyositis, and Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome.

It was found to be probably effective in myasthenia gravis and polymyositis, and possibly effective in several other neuroimmunologic diseases. Further studies are needed to evaluate the use of IVIg for neuroimmunologic diseases in which its efficacy is suspected but not proven and to elucidate its mechanisms of action.