(mentions CMT)Peripheral nerve size in normals and patients with polyneuropathy:

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Muscle Nerve. 2009 Aug 20.

Peripheral nerve size in normals and patients with polyneuropathy: An ultrasound

study.

Zaidman CM, Al-Lozi M, Pestronk A.

Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 660 S. Euclid

Avenue, Box 8111, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.

Ultrasound has been used for visualizing peripheral nerve pathology.

Our goal was to use ultrasound to quantitate the sizes of upper extremity nerves

along their length in control subjects and patients with neuropathy.

We measured median and ulnar nerve cross-sectional areas (NCSA) in the arms of

190 subjects, including 100 with neuropathies and 90 controls. We found that

NCSAs in healthy child and adult controls were greater with increasing height,

at proximal sites, and at sites of entrapment.

Nerves were enlarged in all Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT-1A) (11 of 11; 100%),

most chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) (31 of 36; 86%),

half of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) (8 of 17; 47%), but few axonal neuropathy

(7 of 36, 19%) subjects. In GBS, nerve enlargement occurred early and with

minimal electrodiagnostic abnormalities in some patients.

We conclude that NCSA measured by ultrasound is a quantifiable marker of nerve

features that should be corrected for patient characteristics and nerve site.

NCSA is generally larger in demyelinating than it is in axonal polyneuropathies.