Small Fiber Peripheral Neuropathy And Autonomic Neuropathy

[Darlene]

what is the difference between Small Fiber Peripheral Neuropathy and autonomic neuropathy?

i get this burning sensation inside my body, feels like someone set fire to the inside of ym arms, back and face. then i have frequent urination and diarrhea after an attack. some of u say it sounds like mcad. dr. grubb said its probably peripherial neuropathy. it's there a test someone can do to see what causes the burning.

i aslo get this burning feeling in my feet, and no i dont have sugar. but i think the burning feeling in my feet may be seprrate from the burning inside my arms, back and face.

was causes neuropathy? and does it cause pots?

[HopeSprings]

This is my understanding - Within small fiber nerves are both sensory and autonomic nerves. Sensory nerve damage would cause pain, strange sensations, or lack of sensation symptoms and damaged autonomic ones would cause autonomic symptoms. I had a skin biopsy which confirmed small fiber neuropathy and the cause of the burning in my feet, but when I asked my neuro if my autonomic nerves were affected too and is this why I have POTS, he couldn't answer the question. I later found out from a very smart fellow Potsy that her biopsy report included specific info about her autonomic nerves. I spoke to the pathologist who analyzed my sample and found out that the testing I had done only looked at sensory nerves. Her lab doesn't look at autonomic nerves. I'm thinking why on earth weren't my autonomic nerves evaluated given the fact that I have POTS??? So I found another lab that does look at autonomic nerves, but turns out that autonomic nerves are connected with sweat glands and there must be sweat glands within the sample in order to do this type of analysis. So long story short, I need a new, deeper biopsy... and I'm gonna do it. I believe if there is damage to the autonomic nerves that it would be logical to get autonomic symptoms (POTS). Only problem is WHAT is causing the damage? I have been tested for just about everything that can cause SFN and it's all been negative. You can look up all the various causes of neuropathy - there are many. Neuro said 50-60% of the time they cannot find the cause of SFN.

[jackiemxoxo]

From my understanding and to put it in more simple terms- autonomic neuropathy has to do with the involuntary systems of your body being out of wack (heart rate, digestion, breathing, etc). small fiber peripheral neuropathy has to do more with skin sensations such as burning, numbness, tickling, or not being able to feel in certain areas.

It seems that people with POTS can have both but not always. I know my problems are mostly autonomic neuropathy but they are always checking for small fiber as well. I think autonomic can affect small fiber because of the lack of sweating and damage to those nerves or something like that. There are certain tests that are specific to small fiber neuropathy such as the QSART test that you could look into if it might be small fiber neuropathy.