Walsh & Hoyt: Primary Axonal Degeneration Syndromes (PADS)

In 1986, several patients were described with an AIDP-like syndrome but with electrophysiologic testing that demonstrated only axonal degeneration with no evidence of primary demyelination. Histopathologic examination of nerve roots and peripheral nerves confirmed isolated axonal degeneration unassociated with demyelination or inflammation. Lipid-laden macrophages were identified beneath the myelin sheaths adjacent to the axons. This condition was labeled ""an axonal form of Guillain-Barre syndrome"" and subsequently was described in Europe, North America, and Japan. It eventually was renamed the primary axonal degeneration syndrome (PADS).