Ultrastructural study of a nerve and muscle biopsy from a case of “subacute myelo-optico-neuropathy”

N. suralis and M. quadriceps femoralis, taken from a patient with peripheral nerve paralysis following severe diarrhoea, were examined by electron microscopy. In the nerve fibres myelin sheaths were swollen and degenerated: axons in myelinated fibres also were degenerated. Degeneration was also observed in Schwann cells. In muscle the noteworthy findings were focal irregularity of Z-bands and disappearance of thick filaments. In all parts of the muscle, glycogen granules were remarkably increased in number.