neuropathy
(noo-rop'ă-thē 
)
[neuro- + -pathy]
Any disease of the nerves.
neuropathic,
(noor‵ŏ-path'ik)
adj.SEE: table - Common Neuropathies; polyneuropathy..
AIDS peripheral n.Direct infection of peripheral nerves by HIV, resulting in sensory and motor changes due to destruction of axons or their myelin covering. Acute or chronic inflammatory myelin damage may be the first sign of peripheral nerve involvement. Patients display gradual or abrupt onset of motor weakness and diminished or absent reflexes. Diagnostic biopsies of peripheral nerves show inflammatory changes and loss of myelin. Distal sensory neuropathy occurs in up to 30% of patients with AIDS, usually late in the disease. There is increased risk in older patients and those with diabetes mellitus, nutritional deficiencies, low CD4 cell counts, and vitamin B12 deficiencies. Patients report sharp pain, numbness, or burning in the feet. Destruction of dorsal root ganglions and degeneration of central peripheral axons are seen on autopsy. Some older antiretroviral drugs (ddI, ddC, and d4T) also cause a reversible peripheral neuropathy in about 20% of patients.
SEE: AIDS; Guillain-Barré syndrome; chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, gabapentin, anticonvulsants, and topical agents have all been used with variable success to treat the pain of AIDS-related sensory neuropathy. Acupuncture is not effective. Human nerve growth factor, which stimulates regeneration of damaged nerve fibers, is being studied, esp. to minimize the neuropathy that antiretroviral drugs cause.
ascending n.Neuropathy that ascends from the lower part of the body to the upper.
ABBR: AN
Hearing loss that results from nerve damage or impaired nervous system processing of normal signals received from sensory hair cells in the Organ of Corti. SYN: auditory dyssynchrony.chemotherapy-induced n.Damage to peripheral nerves causing pain, muscle weakness, or autonomic failure after treatment with medications like cisplatin, vincristine, or taxol. VAR: chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.
descending n.Neuropathy that descends from the upper part of the body to the lower.
diabetic n.Damage to autonomic, motor, and /or sensory nerves due to metabolic or vascular derangements in patients with long-stand ing diabetes mellitus. In Western nations, diabetes is the most common cause of neuropathy. Symptoms usually include loss of sensation or unpleasant sensations in the feet, erectile dysfunction, focal motor deficits, gastroparesis, loss of the ability to maintain postural blood pressure, and diseases of cardiac innervation. Sensory loss in the feet may result in undetected injuries that become infected or gangrenous.SYN: diabetic polyneuropathy.
SEE: illus.
Tight control of blood sugar levels may prevent some neuropathic symptoms in patients with diabetes mellitus.
dysthyroid optic n.Crowding of and damage to the optic nerve in patients with Grave disease. It is characterized by loss of visual acuity and color vision, swelling of the optic disk, and compression of the optic nerve at the apex of the orbit. SYN: apical crowding.
entrapment n.Nerve entrapment syndrome.
facial sensory n.Trigeminal neuralgia.
familial amyloidotic n.A rare, progressive autosomal dominant disease, ultimately fatal, caused by the deposition of abnormally folded transthyretin (TTR) in multiple body tissues. The first symptoms include altered sensations of pain and temperature in the feet. TTR eventually damages the eyes, heart, liver, and other internal organ.
focal n.Any nerve disease or injury, e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome or peroneal nerve palsy, that affects a single nerve.
generalized n.A rarely used synonym for polyneuropathy.
glue-sniffer's n.Malfunction of sensory and motor nerves due to inhaling toxic hydrocarbons. The lower extremities and trigeminal nerve are most often damaged.
idiopathic facial n.Bell palsy.
SEE: under Morton, Thomas George.
ABBR: ION
Damage to the optic nerve due to insufficient blood flow to the nerve head. It typically occurs in people over 50 and is often associated with chronic diabetes mellitus, hypertension, or temporal arteritis.Leber hereditary optic n.Leber congenital amaurosis.
multifocal motor n.An asymmetrical motor weakness occasionally found in middle-aged men.
optic n.Pathological injury to the optic nerves or the blood supply to them. Usually, only one eye is affected. Several forms have been described, including ischemic optic neuropathy, which, if prolonged, leads to blindness in the affected eye; optic neuritis due to acute demyelination of optic nerve fibers; infiltrative optic neuropathy, in which the optic nerve is compressed by a tumor or aneurysm; and optic neuropathy due to toxic nutritional factors, e.g., methanol or a combined nutritional and vitamin deficiency.
peripheral n.Any syndrome in which muscle weakness, paresthesias, impaired reflexes, and autonomic symptoms in the hand s and feet are common. The most common cause of peripheral neuropathy is diabetes mellitus. Other, less common, causes of peripheral neuropathy include nerve entrapment syndromes, alcoholism, medication toxicities, malnutrition, hepatic failure, or chronic kidney disease.
plantar n.Any of several conditions in which nerves that supply sensation to the sole of the foot are injured or chronically compressed, resulting in burning and tingling sensations and difficulty stand ing, walking, or running.
Variant: subacute myelo-optico neuropathy
ABBR: SMON
Neuropathy that usually begins with abdominal pain or diarrhea, followed by sensory and motor disturbances in the lower limbs, ataxia, impaired vision, and convulsions or coma. It is reported mostly in Japan and Australia. Most patients survive, but neurological disability remains. Many of those who have the disease have a history of taking drugs of the halogenated oxyquinoline group such as clioquinol (formerly called iodochlorhydroxyquin).sural n.A relatively rare form of sensory neuropathy affecting the lateral ankle, typically associated with the wearing of poorly fitting work boots or shoes that compress the sural nerve.
tomaculous n.The presence of sausage-shaped areas of thickened myelin with secondary axon constriction in some cases of familial recurrent brachial neuropathy.
toxic-nutritional optic n.Bilateral visual impairment with central scotomas. This is usually associated with a toxic or nutritional disorder, e.g., the ingestion of methyl alcohol.