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In a recent letter, Dr Taieb remarks that "most reported cases of CLIPPERS are in fact only ... PPERS due to the short follow-up and the absence of biopsy". So he is pointing out that in the absence of biopsy the "Chronic Lymphocytic" part of CLIPPERS is unproven. (He also takes out the "I" for Inflammation but I would argue that MRI findings in presumptive CLIPPERS patients suggest some form of inflammation.) I am happy to call myself an IPPER instead of a CLIPPER (as I am one of those unbiopsied cases). I'm not sure what the alternative is - pePPERS?
This hides a serious debate about diagnosis of CLIPPERS - the CLIPPERS population is a mix of folk with different kinds of diagnostic tests and different levels of diagnostic confidence. We have all at least had most other conditions excluded. Dr Taieb also suggests that a relapsing-remitting pattern should form part of the diagnosis for CLIPPERS (like in Multiple Sclerosis). However, that would mean that I don't have CLIPPERS as I have, so far, been relapse-free on medication since my first onset.
Read other articles in this series at Living With CLIPPERS.
Living With CLIPPERS by Bill Crum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
