Sonographic Nerve Enlargement in a Patient with Sarcoidosis

Abstract

We herein report a 73-year-old woman case with sarcoid neuropathy showing nerve enlargement assessed by nerve ultrasound both before and after treatment. The site of conduction block in the left tibial nerve corresponded to the site of nerve enlargement with a hypo-echoic pattern. After treatment with prednisolone, nerve ultrasound detected the remission of the nerve enlargement, and the conduction block and clinical symptoms also improved. Nerve enlargement may reflect inflammation of the peripheral nerve. A follow-up study of sonographic nerve enlargement may be of clinical significance for assessing the effectiveness of treatment for sarcoid neuropathy.

Nerve ultrasound for the diagnosis and follow-up of peripheral neuropathies

“…There seems to be no specific morphological changes for further neuropathies such as toxic neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, leprosy, vasculitic neuropathy and sarcoidosis. Normal to slightly enlarged nerve calibers occur in axonal polyneuropathies, with enlargements being observed particularly at compression sites [4,5,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68]. These results suggest that nerve ultrasound can potentially detect increased susceptibility to pressure damage in axonal polyneuropathies.…”

Moderner Ultraschall in der Diagnostik Neuromuskulärer Erkrankungen

“…Weiterhin gibt es Literatur, die den Einsatz des Nervenultraschalls bei der Beurteilung anderer generalisierter oder multifokaler Neuropathien einschließlich Lepra, vaskulitischer Neuropathie und Sarkoidose beschreibt [30][31][32].…”