Walsh & Hoyt: Epidemiology

Patients with CIDP range in age from 2 to 70 years with somewhat more males than females being affected, at least in some series. Well-defined antecedent events are less common in CIDP than in AIDP, but CIDP nevertheless develops after acute upper respiratory tract and other presumed viral infections, vaccinations, surgery, or pregnancy in 1932% of patients. It also has been reported in association with CMV infection, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, HIV infection, malignant melanoma, concurrent myasthenia gravis, Isaacs syndrome, multiple sclerosis and chronic liver disease. Among 33 consecutive cases of CIDP, three cases associated with carcinoma (paraneoplastic syndrome) were documented. Investigators have found an association between the disease and HLA haplotypes A1, B8, DRw3, and Dw3. In one study, HLA typing was analyzed in 71 patients with CIDP and compared with a control population. There was an increased prevalence of HLA-A3, B7, and DR2 in the patients with CIDP compared with the control subjects.