Session Information
Title: Fibromyalgia, Soft Tissue Disorders, Regional and Specific Clinical Pain Syndromes: Clinical Focus
Session Type: Abstract Submissions (ACR)
Background/Purpose: Fibromyalgia patients may present with localized or diffuse paresthesias. Some patients have are concerned about the possible diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders. Neurologists are hesitant to use the term fibromyalgia in patients with paresthesias.
Methods: We administered a questionnaire to office patients who met the 2010 ACR criteria for the diagnosis of fibromyalgia. Included were questions on presence and location of paresthesias. Location: right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, right side of body, left side of body, right side of face, left side of face, whole body. If numbness and tingling were present, were the symptoms constant, intermittent, frequent?
Results: 95 patients with fibromyalgia completed the questionnaire. 53 of the 95 patients (55.7) answered positively to the question “Do you have numbness and tingling?” The mean age of the patients was 51.9 years; 83F and 12M
The paresthesia’s were considered to be diffuse (more than 2 areas of the body) in 21 patients (22.1%) and limited in 32 patients (33.6%).
Patients responded that the paresthesia’s were constant in 21 patients (22.1%), intermittent in 42 patients (44.2%). 28 patients responded that numbness and tingling was frequent (29.4%).
Conclusion: 22.1% of this sample of fibromyalgia patients, taken from a rheumatology office practice, complained of diffuse paresthesias. Neurologists and Primary Care Physicians need to be aware that paresthesia’s are common in fibromyalgia.
Disclosure:
R. S. Katz,
None;
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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/numbness-and-tingling-neurological-symptoms-in-fibromyalgia/