The evaluation of peripheral neuropathy. Part II: Identifying common clinical syndromes

Abstract

The first of this 3-part series on the diagnosis and management of peripheral neuropathy focused on the recognition of neuropathy and its clinical and laboratory characterization as essential to determining etiology. This approach allows for the construction of a differential diagnosis that can be narrowed by subsequent diagnostic testing. This installment, along with the final one, will focus on recognition and management of common neuropathies likely to be seen by the average practitioner. Neuropathies covered in this second part include diabetic, autoimmune and inflammatory, toxic, neuropathies associated with plasma cell dyscrasias, and paraneoplastic neuropathies.