Immune-Mediated Myopathies and Neuropathies - Current Trends and Future Prospects

The book covers all aspects of immune-mediated diseases of the muscle and nerve, which are a group of complex diseases, whose diagnosis needs a team of specialists in the field of neuropathology, immunopathology, neurology, and rheumatology. Nerve and muscle biopsy evaluation is invaluable in distinguishing immune-mediated from etiologies and therefore, despite being invasive, pathological evaluation of nerve and muscle has stood the test of time. Chapters cover all the essential aspects of each disease entity viz. the pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnostic armamentarium, and guidelines for diagnosis and management. It is supplemented with full-colorful illustrations and photomicrographs for better comprehension. It includes a chapter highlighting the current progress in the field of immune-mediated myopathies and neuropathies as it is a rapidly evolving field with the addition of many new entities.

This clinically oriented book serves as a primer for general histopathologists as well as a practice guide for neuropathologists. It is also relevant for neurologists and rheumatologists and encourages young medical students, residents, and research scholars in the field of neuropathology, neurology, and rheumatology to get involved in active research.

?Dr. Balan Louis Gaspar is the Founder and Director of NextGenPath Diagnostics which provides state-of-the-art Histopathology services in India. He is the first in the country to super-specialize in the field of Histopathology (DM Histopathology) from the prestigious Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. Of note, he had established the neuromuscular lab during his three-year DM residency. He was awarded the prestigious 'Prof. Subhash Kumari Gupta Memorial Gold Medal' in his postgraduation (MD Pathology) from the same institute. Apart from his sound knowledge in the field of diagnostic histopathology, he has profound experience in ancillary techniques such as immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, electron microscopy, conventional and advanced molecular techniques such as fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), Sanger sequencing, and next-generation sequencing (NGS). He has more than 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed indexed national and international journals to his credit. His recent textbook 'Myopathology - A Practical Clinico-pathological Approach to Skeletal Muscle Biopsies' Springer Publications, 2019 has been well received in the academic and research community. He is one of the few in the country to have expertise in muscle and nerve biopsy interpretation. He has been a guest faculty in national and international conferences and an active member of several scientific societies.