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CPn as a cause of recurrent optic neuritis in a twelve year old boy.

http://tinyurl.com/qk33f

Pohl D, Rostasy K, Gieffers J, Maass M, Hanefeld F.
Department of Paediatrics and Paediatric Neurology, Georg August University Gottingen, Germany.

It has been suggested that Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) is involved in the pathogenesis of diverse diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), including multiple sclerosis. We report the case of a 12-year-old male with isolated recurrent optic neuritis and an associated CNS infection with C. pneumoniae. The patient presented with three attacks of optic neuritis within 5 months. A positive polymerase chain reaction for C. pneumoniae in the cerebrospinal fluid led to the diagnosis of a CNS infection with C. pneumoniae. After treatment with the antibiotic rifampicin, he experienced no further attacks during the follow-up period of 6 years. These findings suggest the possibility of a C. pneumoniae infection as a contributing factor or even causative event for the development of optic neuritis.

Dev Med Child Neurol. 2006 Sep;48(9):770-2.

PMID: 16904026 [PubMed - in process]


I thought this was interesting because optic neuritis is the first symptom of so many people with MS.

Sarah

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Hi Bob,

Well, that's a delightful article for first thing in the morning! However, Crohn's is one of the things which often responds to treatment with antibiotics for Chlamydia pneumoniae. There are many others normally thought of as autoimmune as well.

Look here: CPn Help/?q=glossary/term/20

and here: http://www.anapsid.org/cnd/diffdx/bacterialink.html

Sarah

It does push the theory that something enviromental triggers the MS. I think it does. We have a large amount of MS'ers in our small rural area.

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