Clinical and epidemiological features of antinuclear antibody (ANA) positive and negative patients
| ANA positive (n = 9) | ANA negative (n = 27) | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| *Information not available of all patients. | |||
| †Calculated by χ2 (2×3, 2×4 and 2×6 tables) with Yates’correction. | |||
| ‡ANA positive colon carcinoma, melanoma, and sarcoma; ANA negative liposarcoma, pancreatic cancer, 2× stomach cancer, kidney carcinoma | |||
| CIDP, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; GBS, Guillain–Barré syndrome; NS, not significant; PNS, paraneoplastic neurological syndrome; RS, Rankin score. | |||
| Men/women | 3/6 | 19/8 | p<0.05 |
| Age in years, mean (SD) | 64.1 (9.5) | 60.8 (10.6) | NS |
| CNS involvement | 0 | 8/27 | NS |
| Autonomic disturbances* | 2/8 | 8/18 | NS |
| Tumour type | p<0.05† | ||
| Lung | 0 | 13/27 | |
| Lymphoma | 1/9 | 4/27 | |
| Breast | 5/9 | 0 | |
| Ovarian | 0 | 2/27 | |
| Prostate | 0 | 3/27 | |
| Others‡ | 3/9 | 5/27 | |
| PNS–tumour time interval in months | −8.3 (11.7) | −3.6 (14.0) | NS |
| Treatment of the neuropathy* | |||
| Tumour treatment | 8/9 | 17/20 | NS |
| Chemotherapy | 4/9 | 11/20 | NS |
| Immunosuppressant/immunomodulatory therapy | 6/9 | 11/20 | NS |
| Rankin score (median (25% and 75% percentile)) | |||
| At diagnosis | 2 (1.9 and 2.7) | 3 (2.1 and 3.3) | NS |
| After one year | 2 (1.5 and 2.5) | 4 (1.5 and 5.0) | p<0.05 |
| Course of the neuropathy | p<0.05† | ||
| Improved | 2/9 | 2/20 | |
| Stable | 7/9 | 6/20 | |
| Deteriorated | 0 | 12/20 | |
| Type of neuropathy | NS† | ||
| Sensorimotor | 7/9 | 16/27 | |
| GBS/CIDP | 0 | 4/27 | |
| Multiplex | 2/9 | 0 | |
| Single system/isolated (motor/sensory/autonomic) | 0 | 7/27 | |