Sensory profiles and skin innervation of patients with painful and painless neuropathies

We assessed pain characteristics and sensory profiles of a large and extensively phenotyped cohort of patients with polyneuropathies (PNPs) and small fiber neuropathy (SFN) using quantitative sensory testing (QST). Our aim was to detect potentially discriminative QST profiles of patient subgroups determined by pain, etiology, or skin innervation. We prospectively recruited 350 patients with painful and painless PNPs and with SFN at 1 neuromuscular center. After neurological work-up, patients underwent QST at the dorsal foot and 5-mm skin punch biopsy at the lower leg and upper thigh for intraepidermal nerve fiber counts. A healthy control group of 273 volunteers was investigated accordingly. Pain was present in 50% of the patients with PNP with a median intensity of 6/10 on a numeric rating scale, and, by definition, in all patients with SFN, with a median intensity of 5/10 numeric rating scale. Axonal PNP was painful more often than demyelinating PNP (P

Source: Pain - August 23, 2018 Category: Anesthesiology Tags: Research Paper Source Type: research