CMT and pain: correlations with neurophysiological, clinical, and disability fin

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Charcot-Marie-Tooth and pain: correlations with neurophysiological,

clinical, and disability findings

Journal Neurological Sciences Volume 29, Number 3 / June, 2008

http://www.springerlink.com/content/6337328151008754/

Luca Padua1 , Tiziana Cavallaro2, e Pareyson3, Aldo Quattrone4,

Giuseppe Vita5, Angelo Schenone6 and the Italian CMT QoL Study Group

Pain is not considered a relevant symptom in Charcot-Marie-Tooth

(CMT) patients and no studies have comprehensively assessed it. We

performed a multidimensional assessment in 211 consecutive CMT

patients to evaluate the clinical features, quality of life (QoL) and

disability. For QoL we used the SF-36, which comprises one domain

called " Bodily Pain " (BP), which is a generic measure of intensity of

pain. Results showed that pain is a relevant symptom related to

gender, CMT subtypes, clinical picture, disability, and mildly to

neurophysiological impairment. In our study the importance of pain

was an occasional finding. Because of the study design we are not

able to ascertain if pain is primarily due to the neuropathy or if it

is due to the muscoloskeletal deformities arising as a consequence of

the neuropathy. Our study underlined that pain should be considered

as a relevant symptom in CMT patients and further studies should be

performed.

(1) Institute of Neurology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and

Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Rome, Italy

(2) Department of Neurological and Visual Sciences, Section of

Clinical Neurology, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

(3) Istituto Nazionale Neurologico " C. Besta " , Milan, Italy

(4) Azienda O.U. Policlinico di Catanzaro, Università di Catanzaro,

Catanzaro, Italy

(5) Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Anesthesiology,

Azienda O.U. Policinico di Messina, Messina, Italy

(6) Department of Neurological and Vision Sciences, Genova, Italy