To the Editor.—
The extraordinarily interesting report by Lassmann et al entitled "Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculitis in a Patient with Multiple Sclerosis" (Archives 1981;38:99-102) must be considered as an important contribution in an area of extreme controversy. First of all, it is regrettable that the clinical history provided is not only scanty but fails to describe the results of neurological examinations in favor of laboratory data. The patient's appearance, with acute bilateral swelling of lids and lips accompanied by facial numbness, is indicative of neither multiple sclerosis nor polyradiculitis! The illustrations of the pathological changes in the CNS, in particular those labeled a through d in their Fig 1, are so miniscule that they provide very little information, although they certainly are suggestive of the lesions of multiple sclerosis. The author's conclusion that "in MS [multiple sclerosis], similarly to EAE [experimental allergic encephalomyelitis],... inflammatory demyelination may sometimes take place in the