Autonomic peripheral neuropathy

✍ Scribed by Roy Freeman

• Book ID: 117294272
• Publisher: The Lancet
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 370 KB
• Volume: 365
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0140-6736
• DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)74815-7

✦ Synopsis

Autonomic nerve fibres are affected in most symmetrical peripheral neuropathies. This involvement is mild or subclinical in many cases; however, in a group of peripheral neuropathies, the small or unmyelinated autonomic fibres are selectively or prominently targeted (table). In these neuropathies, autonomic dysfunction is a prominent manifestation. The extensive distribution of the autonomic nerves results in an array of signs and symptoms that includes impairment of cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, urogenital, thermoregulatory, sudomotor, and pupillomotor autonomic function. This Seminar covers the peripheral neuropathies in which autonomic dysfunction is a prominent and clinically important manifestation (panel 1). The diagnosis of the autonomic neuropathies has been improved by the availability of sensitive and reproducible measures of autonomic function. 1,2 With the help of these tests and the judicious use of laboratory and electrophysiological testing, many autonomic neuropathies can be accurately diagnosed and their clinical progression monitored (panels 2 and 3).