Use

This test is useful for investigating polyneuropathies, particularly when there's a need to assess small fiber involvement that traditional methods fail to detect. The advent of epidermal skin biopsies and the use of PGP 9.5 immunohistochemistry now allows for the direct visualization and assessment of small sensory fibers within the skin. This method has been validated with acceptable sensitivity and specificity, offering a minimally invasive option for reliably identifying pathological changes in small fiber neuropathy across various conditions like diabetes, HIV, lupus, and neurosarcoidosis. It provides a quantitative measure of intraepidermal nerve fiber density, facilitating the diagnosis and characterization of polyneuropathies.