These symptoms occur because nerves cannot send proper signals to and from your brain:

• Difficulty feeling in any area of the body
• Difficulty swallowing
• Difficulty using the arms or hands
• Difficulty using the legs or feet
• Difficulty walking
• Pain, burning, pins and needles, or shooting pains in any area of the body (nerve pain)
• Weakness in the face, arms, legs, or other area of the body

Usually, these symptoms start in the toes and feet and move up the legs, eventually affecting the hands and arms.

An exam may show:

• Decreased feeling (may affect touch, pain, vibration, or position sensation)
• Diminished reflexes (most common in the ankle)
• Muscle atrophy (becoming smaller)
• Muscle twitches (fasciculations)
• Muscle weakness
• Paralysis (inability to move a muscle normally)

Abnormal findings on any of these tests can indicate that you have a neuropathy.

Tests used to detect most metabolic neuropathies:

• Blood tests
• Electrical test of the nerves (EMG)
• Electrical test of nerve conduction

Images

Central nervous system

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Metabolic neuropathies Overview

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Metabolic neuropathies Treatment

Review Date: 02/06/2010
Reviewed By: David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; Luc Jasmin, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, and Department of Anatomy at UCSF, San Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)