The DOI matches its Crossref record; 26 of the 26 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Intraepidermal Nerve Fibers Are Indicators of Small-Fiber Neuropathy in Both Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients
Abstract
OBJECTIVE—Small-fiber neuropathies may be symptomatic yet escape detection by standard tests. We hypothesized that morphologic changes in intraepidermal nerves would correlate with clinical measures of small-fiber neuropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We studied 25 diabetic and 23 nondiabetic patients with neuropathy defined by signs, symptoms, and quantitative testing and 20 control subjects. Skin biopsies were obtained from forearm, thigh, proximal leg, and distal leg, and nerves identified using immunofluorescence with antibody to protein gene product (PGP) 9.5. RESULTS—Mean dendritic length (MDL) (P < 0.01) and intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENF) (P < 0.001) progressively decreased from proximal to distal sites only in patients with neuropathy. There was a significant reduction in IENF when comparing control subjects and patient groups in the distal leg (P < 0.001). MDL was significantly decreased in the thigh (P < 0.005) and in the proximal (P < 0.01) and distal (P < 0.002) leg in patients compared with control subjects. IENF was not significantly altered in diabetic patients of <5 years’ duration, but significantly decreased in patients with >5 years’ duration. MDL showed a linear decrease with increasing duration of diabetes. Distal leg IENF showed significant negative correlations with warm (P < 0.02) and cold (P < 0.05) thermal threshold, heat pain (P < 0.05), pressure sense (P < 0.05), and neurological disability score total sensory (P < 0.03) and total neuropathy (P < 0.03) values. CONCLUSIONS—IENF was not significantly altered in these patients at <5 years’ duration of diabetes, but fell significantly after 5 years of diabetes. MDL exhibited a linear loss with time, suggesting a different mechanism of change. MDL and IENF together may prove a useful end point in therapeutic trials for neuropathy.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
PGP 9.5—a new marker for vertebrate neurons and neuroendocrine cells
Thompson, R. J., Doran, J. F., Jackson, P., Dhillon, A. P., & Rode, J. (1983) · Brain Research · doi:10.1016/0006-8993(83)90241-x · Cited by 709
The spectrum of neuropathy in diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance
Sumner, C. J., Sheth, S., Griffin, J. W., Cornblath, D. R., & Polydefkis, M. (2003) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.60.1.108 · Cited by 708 · cited 1×
“This contrasts with reports from other investigators (2,4) that there is a loss of epidermal fibers, even in the pre-diabetic, glucose-intolerant period.”
ResultDetection, characterization, and staging of polyneuropathy: Assessed in diabetics
Dyck, P. J. (1988) · Muscle & Nerve · doi:10.1002/mus.880110106 · Cited by 555
Cutaneous innervation in sensory neuropathies: Evaluation by skin biopsy
McCarthy, B. G., Hsieh, S.-T., Stocks, A., Hauer, P., Macko, C., Cornblath, D. R., Griffin, J. W., & McArthur, J. C. (1995) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.45.10.1848 · Cited by 472
Quantitation of epidermal nerves in diabetic neuropathy
Kennedy, W. R., Wendelschafer-Crabb, G., & Johnson, T. (1996) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.47.4.1042 · Cited by 436
Painful sensory neuropathy: Prospective evaluation using skin biopsy
Periquet, M. I., Novak, V., Collins, M. P., Nagaraja, H. N., Erdem, S., Nash, S. M., Freimer, M. L., Sahenk, Z., Kissel, J. T., & Mendell, J. R. (1999) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.53.8.1641 · Cited by 377
Small‐fiber sensory neuropathies: Clinical course and neuropathology of idiopathic cases
Holland, N. R., Crawford, T. O., Hauer, P., Cornblath, D. R., Griffin, J. W., & McArthur, J. C. (1998) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.410440111 · Cited by 340
Fiber loss is primary and multifocal in sural nerves in diabetic polyneuropathy
Dyck, P. J., Lais, A., Karnes, J. L., O'Brien, P., & Rizza, R. (1986) · Annals of Neurology · doi:10.1002/ana.410190503 · Cited by 298
Reduced intraepidermal nerve fiber density in HIV-associated sensory neuropathy
Polydefkis, M., Yiannoutsos, C. T., Cohen, B. A., Hollander, H., Schifitto, G., Clifford, D. B., Simpson, D. M., Katzenstein, D., Shriver, S., Hauer, P., et al. (2002) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.58.1.115 · Cited by 297
Report and Recommendations of the San Antonio Conference on Diabetic Neuropathy
American Diabetes Association, & American Academy of Neurology (1988) · Diabetes Care · doi:10.2337/diacare.11.7.592 · Cited by 286
Cited by
Mechanisms of Diabetic Complications
Forbes, J. M., & Cooper, M. E. (2013) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00045.2011 · Cited by 2,890
Intraepidermal nerve fiber density at the distal leg: a worldwide normative reference study
Lauria, G., Bakkers, M., Schmitz, C., Lombardi, R., Penza, P., Devigili, G., Smith, A. G., Hsieh, S., Mellgren, S. I., Umapathi, T., et al. (2010) · Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System · doi:10.1111/j.1529-8027.2010.00271.x · Cited by 518
Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: Epidemiology, Diagnosis, and Pharmacotherapy
Iqbal, Z., Azmi, S., Yadav, R., Ferdousi, M., Kumar, M., Cuthbertson, D. J., Lim, J., Malik, R. A., & Alam, U. (2018) · Clinical Therapeutics · doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2018.04.001 · Cited by 487
Vinik, A. I., Nevoret, M.-L., Casellini, C., & Parson, H. (2013) · Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.ecl.2013.06.001 · Cited by 366
Self-citationDiabetic Painful and Insensate Neuropathy: Pathogenesis and Potential Treatments
Obrosova, I. G. (2009) · Neurotherapeutics · doi:10.1016/j.nurt.2009.07.004 · Cited by 272
Metadata
- Authors
- Pittenger, G. L., Ray, M., Burcus, N. I., McNulty, P., Basta, B., & Vinik, A. I.
- Venue
- Diabetes Care
- Publisher
- American Diabetes Association
- Published
- 2004-08-01
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1974-1979
- ISSN
- 0149-5992 (ISSN-L)
- 1935-5548
- OpenAlex
- W2085384724
- Cited by
- 263
- References
- 26
- FWCI
- 8.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Intraepidermal Nerve Fibers Are Indicators of Small-Fiber Neuropathy in Both Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2337/diacare.27.8.1974
- The paper
- Pittenger, G. L., Ray, M., Burcus, N. I., McNulty, P., Basta, B., & Vinik, A. I. (2004). Intraepidermal Nerve Fibers Are Indicators of Small-Fiber Neuropathy in Both Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients. Diabetes Care. https://doi.org/10.2337/diacare.27.8.1974
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.