Marieke van Rosmalen

Chapter 5 80 Table 5.1 Patient characteristics Parameter Inflammatory neuropathy Controls Level of significance CIDP MMN Disease (MND) Healthy Number of patients 40 27 34 5 - Age, years (SD) 62.9 (9.7) 53.4 (11.8) 61.7 (11.3) 54.4 (7.3) 0.003* Male (%) 34 (85.0%) 25 (92.6%) 26 (76.5%) 3 (60.0%) 0.189 Disease duration, months (SD) 37.3 (70.8) 69.1 (83.7) 46.0 (40.3) NA 0.156 Phenotype Sensorimotor 31 0 Pure motor 2 27 Pure sensory or ataxic 7 0 * Patients with MMN were younger compared to patients with CIDP and MND. Abbreviations: CIDP = chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; MMN = multifocal motor neuropathy; MND = motor neuron disease; SD = standard deviation. Intraspinal nerve root measurements on MRI Feasibility of measuring method Table 5.2 summarizes the number of measurements per nerve root and per measurement location, i.e. ventral and dorsal roots (C5-C7). The number of successful measurements did not differ between right and left sides ( p = 0.120). We obtained more measurements in dorsal roots compared to ventral roots ( p < 0.001). We established that ventral nerve roots were occasionally found very close to the ventral border of the vertebral column, which complicated or even precluded the definition of the ventral roots. Dorsal intraspinal roots were frequently surrounded by more cerebrospinal fluid that provided more contrast and facilitated the identification and measurements of nerve roots. Table 5.2 Rate of overall successful measurements per root Root level (n = 106) Ventral Dorsal C5 Right 81 (76.4%) 96 (90.6%) Left 85 (80.2%) 96 (90.6%) C6 Right 57 (53.8%) 75 (70.8%) Left 55 (51.9%) 76 (71.7%) C7 Right 45 (42.5%) 68 (64.2%) Left 52 (49.1%) 71 (67.0%) Total (max. 1272) 887 (69.7%) Number of measurements per root differed between ventral and dorsal roots ( p < 0.001), but did not differ between right and left side ( p = 0.120). Maximum number of measurements per measurement site is 106 (total included participants = 106).