The Detection of Peripheral Neuropathy by Clinical Scales in Patients Diagnosed With Alcohol Use Disorder

Introduction Peripheral neuropathy is a well-known manifestation of alcohol overconsumption, but neurophysiological confirmation of peripheral nerve damage is costly and sometimes involves invasive procedures. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of commonly used clinical scales to detect the presence of neuropathy in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Methods Data were collected retrospectively on 116 patients diagnosed with AUD and treated voluntarily in a detoxification special unit. Ninety-eight age and gender-matched healthy subjects without a diagnosis of AUD were used as the control group. The five tested clinical neuropathy scales were the Neuropathy Symptoms Score (NSS), the Neuropathy Disability Score, the Neuropathy Impairment Score (NIS), the Neuropathy Impairment Score of the Lower Limbs, and the modified Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Scale. Results The mean values of all tested clinical scales of the patients with AUD were significantly higher than the control group. All examined clinical scales were determined to be useful in discriminating between patients with neuropathy from patients without neuropathy. The strongest discrimination was seen with the NIS, including the best sensitivity and specificity for the range of scores obtained. All scales, except NSS, showed a stronger correlation with measures of large (LFN) than small fiber neuropathy (SFN). Conclusion Our study suggests that clinical scales could be used to detect peripheral neuropathy in patients with AUD when neurophysiological testing is not available. Moreover, we suggest that the NIS and the NSS scales would be most helpful in assessing LFN and SFN, respectively, in patients with AUD.