Clinical Aspects of Peripheral Neuropathy

Abstract

A brief discussion of some of the clinical issues involved in the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy will be helpful to pathologists who receive clinical data from their neurological colleagues and wish to correlate this with biopsy findings. More information will be extracted from the biopsy when there is close contact between clinician and pathologist. Discrepancies between the clinical and histological impressions should result in reevaluation of both types of data. For example, in a case where the biopsy shows a nonspecific picture suggesting great chronicity and prominence of regenerating clusters, the pathologist might offer the possibility that the neuropathy is genetically determined, and this may lead to a revealing reevaluation of the patient’s family history or greater emphasis placed on examination finding of foot deformity or scoliosis. Conversely, when the clinician suspects vasculitis or amyloidosis, the pathologist may examine additional sections with special stains if the initial assessment of the biopsy is unrevealing.