ABSTRACT
There is a wide spectrum of demyelinating diseases of the cerebral and peripheral nervous systems which are temporally related to infection. These diseases are not due to direct injury by the organism as the neurological signs appear late in the course or weeks after recovery and the virus cannot be isolated from the neural tissues despite presence of inflammation and demyelination on histopathology. The post-infectious demyelinating syndromes are usually associated with virus-like illnesses but can also occur following immunization, bacterial infection, surgery and pyretotherapy. The spectrum of parainfectious demyelinating syndromes is wide and includes the following disorders: 1) acute disseminated encephalomyelitis; 2) acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalitis; 3) acute transverse myelitis; 4) optic neuritis; 5) cerebellitis; 6) Guillain Barre syndrome (GB Syndrome); and 7) brachial and lumbosacral plexopathy.
