Autonomic Neuropathy!
 

Can anyone tell me what essentially is the difference between Diabetic autonomic neuropathy and autonomic neuropathy from any cause (even idiopathic) in terms of eg. sudden death due to QT interval lengthening?

Here's an overview of different neuropathies, maybe something here will give you an idea.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1173756-overview

There may actually not be all that much difference--
 

--except in severity and the likelihood of such a bad event happening; diabetics who suffer from severe autonomic neuropathy can have adverse events. If one suffers from autonomic neuropathy of any kind, very careful monitoring is the norm, especially if there is an acute onset, as there is in post-infectious pandysautonomia.

I did a search on this question...

I found other diseases that cause PN also affect QT...
HIV and liver disease, in addition to diabetes.

Here is a great QT resource:
http://www.azcert.org/

Low Potassium and magnesium are also culprits...so make sure you do not go low in either or both. Low levels will trigger an
episode.

I have autonomic neuropathy and it takes a while to learn to live with it. Mine is not diabetic. I don't think you can compare morbidity and mortality to diabetic autonomic neuropathy, because diabetes causes overlay of other problems that you may not experience in non-diabetic AN. There is no real marker for autoimmune AN, which is what they feel mine is. Mine is due to or part of connective tissue disease which is 'seronegative' Sjogrens or some yet unnamed connective tissue disease. My AN has remained fairly constant now for several years, actually, has improved with IVIG.

Dysautonomia is used as an interchangeable term by some medical people. There are some good sites on dysautonomia. The big thing about autonomic neuropathy or dysautonomia is unpredictability where there should be predictability


QT lengthening can be a side effect of quite a few drugs. QT lengthening needs to be explored by a cardiologist.

More autonomic questions!
 

So what specialty/ies juggle all of this?

A neurologist for the PN?? A gastroenterologist/motility specialist for the gastroparesis?? A cardiologist for QT interval lengthening but then who monitors if you even have this or have other emerging autonomic issues?

Also fourteen months ago soon after I first got sick with all this, I mentioned to the neurologist about how sick I felt every time I ate, with nausea, epigastric fullness and early satiety, so he did the QSART (the sweat test) and some cardiac test (forgotten the name) but he did not test for the gastric emptying even though that is what I was actually complaining about.

Should these two tests have shown up any autonomic issues even though they were not actually looking directly at the issue I was complaining about? Do these take time to become positive? Would these other tests be positive now if I had them done again?

I really appreciate any responses!

Is there a possible connection between Gastroparesis and SFN? I have both but never really heard of a connection between them (they were diagnosed by different docs). I currently take Domperidone for the immotility. Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread.

Jay

There are two issues for you to consider.

1) if you are on opiates for pain, you will be constipated and the Motilium would help. This drug is not available in US except from some compounding pharmacies and the FDA is trying to block compounding of non approved drugs.

2) real PN of the GI tract would be different. If you do not use drugs that constipate (slow food transit), then gastroparesis is a stronger possibility.

There is a new drug in US by injection that blocks GI side effects from opiates/narcotics.
Relistor:
http://www.wyeth.com/hcp/relistor/ho...WT.mc_ev=click
Not sure if it is in Canada or UK.

mardonna
 

I am a 67 yo man. I developed pn about 2 yrs ago. I also get extremely tired in my pelvic region and movesup my back. I had bilateral laminectomys on L1-4. but no relief. my CK creatine kinese is 715, it dropped some and then went back up. The research I have done says High CK comes from muscle damage, heart damage or from the brain. I have have all the heart work ups. I have been to two neurologists including one at Oregon Health Sciences med center. my CK e]was normal prior to all this. Anyone else with pn and High ck?

Some drugs cause high CPK ...esp statins for cholesterol.

If you tell me what drugs you take, I'll look them up for you.

Sometimes exercise will do it too. And if you bump and bruise yourself hard.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/003503.htm

Dermatomyositis mentioned in the above article, causes weakness in the legs and arms in the muscles closest to the trunk. There is a version without the skin discolorations called polymyositis.