Bay Biosciences provides high quality, clinical grade bio-specimens, matched serum, plasma and PBMC samples from patients diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy.
The K2EDTA plasma and PBMC bio-fluid specimens are processed from patient’s peripheral whole-blood using customized collection and processing protocols.
Peripheral Neuropathy Overview
Peripheral neuropathy is a general term that describes many conditions caused by damage to the peripheral nervous system.
The peripheral nerves are those outside the spinal corn and brain, and they are responsible for sending sensory information to and from the central nervous system. For example, the peripheral nerves can tell the body when the hands are cold.
Peripheral neuropathy affects more than 20 million people in the United States. In general, the condition can cause a loss of normal nerve signals, or cause inappropriate or distorted signals.
The condition can affect a range of different nerves, so it can impact a variety of locations in different ways. It can affect a single nerve or several nerves at the same time.
Examples of peripheral neuropathy include:
- Bells palsy, which is a single-nerve neuropathy that affects the face
- Carpal tunnel syndrome, which is a compression of the nerves in the wrist.
- Peroneal nerve palsy, which is caused by compression of the fibular nerve in the leg.
- Postherpetic neuralgia, which can follow shingles and last for many months after the rash disappears
- Ulnar nerve palsy, such as after an injury to the elbow.
Signs and Symptoms of Peripheral Neuropathy
Symptoms of peripheral neuropathy may vary according to the type of neuropathy. Researchers have identified 100 different types of neuropathy.
Generally, the types are classified into three categories, each with its own set of symptoms. They are:
Sensory neuropathy
This affects the sensory nerves, which impact the sensations of pain, touch, and temperature.
The person may haveTrusted Source:
- Burning, stabbing, lancing, boring, or shooting pains, which may be worse at night
- Decreased sensation of vibration and touch
- Difficulty with coordination and balance
- Increased pain or inability to feel pain
- Loss of ability to detect changes in heat and cold
- Pins and needles and hypersensitivity
Especially in cases when the cause is diabetes, sensory neuropathy can also lead to foot and leg ulcers, infection, and gangrene.
Autonomic Neuropathy
The affects body processes that the brain controls involuntarily. Symptoms may include:
- Excessive sweating
- Fluctuating blood pressure
- Heat intolerance
- Issues with bowel or bladder control
- Problems with swallowing
Motor Neuropathy
This affects the muscles that the brain controls consciously.
Symptoms include the following:
- Muscle weakness, leading to unsteadiness and difficulty performing small movements such as buttoning a shirt
- Shrinking od muscle
- Muscle wasting
- Twitching and cramps in muscles
Causes of Peripheral Neuropathy
Many types of neuropathy are “idiopathic,” or of unknown cause, but a number of conditions can trigger the problem. These include:
- Chronic kidney disease: If the kidneys are not functioning normally, an imbalance of salts and chemicals can cause peripheral neuropathy.
- Injuries: Broken bones and tight plaster casts can put pressure directly on the nerves.
- Infections: Shingles, HIV infection, Lyme disease, and viral illnesses can lead to nerve damage.
- Guillain-Barre Syndrome: This is a specific type of peripheral neuropathy triggered by infection.
- Some autoimmune conditions: These include rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
- Certain types of cancer: These including lymphomas and multiple myeloma (MM)
- Chronic liver disease
Other causes can include:
- B12 or folate vitamin deficiencies
- Certain medications, such as chemotherapy and HIV treatment drugs
- Excessive alcohol intake
- Exposure to toxins such as insecticides and solvents
Disorders of the small blood vessels can reduce blood supply to the nerves, resulting in nerve tissue damage. Certain benign tumors can also affect nerve tissue and lead to neuropathic pain.
Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetes is the most common cause of chronic peripheral neuropathy in the U.S. About 60-70 percent of patients with diabetes will have some form of damage to their sensory, motor, or autonomic nerves. Many will have foot problems and ulcers.
High blood sugar levels cause damage to the walls of the tiny blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the nerves in the ends of the hands and feet, and the essential organs in the body, such as the eyes, kidneys, and heart. Whenever skin becomes damaged, the loss of sensation further increases the risk of damage.
Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathy
Treatment either targets the underlying cause, or it aims to provide symptomatic pain relief and prevent further damage. Treatments may include:
- Maintaining nerve health by keeping a healthy lifestyle. This can include exercising, eating healthy, keeping a healthy weight, correcting any vitamin deficiencies, and not drinking alcohol or smoking.
- Managing blood sugar in cases of diabetic neuropathy, to prevent further nerve damage.
- Removing the exposure to a suspected toxin, or stopping a problematic drug, to halt further nerve damage.
- Taking immunosuppressive drugs when the cause is an autoimmune disorder, or using plasmapheresis, a procedure that cleans the blood to reduce inflammation.
- Using hand and foot braces or orthopedic shoes to help cope with physical disability from motor symptoms.
Medications for Neuropathic Pain
Medications that may help relieve symptoms, but do not cure the problem, include:
- Antidepressants , such as venlafaxine
- Drugs normally used for epilepsy, such as carbamazepine
- Duloxetine, which may help people with chemotherapy-induced neuropathy.
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, which may help control milder pain.
- Prescription skin patches, such as Lidoderm, for temporary, localized pain relief. This contains the local anesthetic lidocaine. The patches are like bandages, and a person can cut them to size.
- Topical ointments and creams, such hot pepper-containing capsaicin, which may also ease pain.
A patient’s choice of treatment should take into account any medications that person is taking for other conditions in order to avoid unwanted interactions.
Treatments for Mononeuropathies
When a person’s neuropathy happens as a result of compression of a single nerve, treatment is similar regardless of which nerve is involved. The approach depends on whether the compression is fixed or transient.
A palsy of the ulnar, radial, or peroneal nerve may be temporary and reversible if a person simply avoids the cause of the nerve compression. For example, a person with ulnar nerve palsy should not lean on the affected elbow.
The patient may need to rest, use heat, or take a limited course of drugs to reduce inflammation.
In carpal tunnel syndrome, conservative therapy includes splinting the wrist and taking oral or injected corticosteroid drugs.
If a single-nerve neuropathy does not respond to these measures, surgery may be an option in rare cases. Surgery may also be necessary if the nerve compression is fixed, for example when the cause is a tumor.
A doctor should consider referring a person to pain specialist or a relevant clinical specialty at any stage if:
- The pain is severe
- An underlying health condition is getting worse
- The pain significantly limits daily activities and quality of life
Natural Treatments
Non-drug measures for peripheral neuropathy can include using warm or cold packs, unless heat or cold makes the symptoms worse.
Stress relief and other complementary therapies include meditation, relaxation techniques, massage, and acupuncture. These may help a person cope with pain from the condition.
Some people find that using a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine helps. This device interrupts nerve messages by delivering a small electric current. Research has not confirmed the effectiveness of this treatment.
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Samples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.
Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.
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This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.
Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.
Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.
Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.
Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.
Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.
Types of Biospecimens
Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:
- Peripheral whole-blood
- Amniotic fluid
- Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
- Sputum
- Pleural effusion
- Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- Serum (sera)
- Plasma
- Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)
- Saliva
- Buffy coat
- Urine
- Stool samples
- Aqueous humor
- Vitreous humor
- Kidney stones (renal calculi)
- Other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.
We can also procure most human bio-specimens, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.
In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.
Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.
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