title: Epidemiology of chronic inflammatory neuropathies in southeast England.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is little information about the prevalence and disease burden of chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP), multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) and paraproteinaemic demyelinating neuropathy (PDN).
  
  
  METHODS
  Multiple sources were used to study the prevalence and clinical features of these diseases in a southeast England population of 3,557,352 people.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The crude prevalences were as follows: CIDP, 2.84 (95% CI 2.31-3.45); MMN, 0.53 (95% CI 0.32-0.83); and PDN, 1.04 (95% CI 0.73-1.43) per 100,000 population. All three diseases were more common in men than in women. The peak decade of onset was older in those with CIDP (70-79 years) and PDN (70-79 years) than in those with MMN (50-59 years). Disability was greater in CIDP and PDN, with median (range) overall neuropathy limitations scores of 4 (0-8) and 4 (1-6), respectively, than in MMN, with a score of 2 (1-5).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The common forms of chronic inflammatory neuropathy cause a considerable disease burden in the community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahdi-Rogers
authors.forename: R A C
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020277:Polyradiculoneuropathy, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy; disability; epidemiology; multifocal motor neuropathy; paraproteinaemic demyelinating neuropathy