Enlarged peripheral nerve

What it means

Increase in size of a peripheral nerve. This finding can be appreciated by palpation along the axis of the nerve.

This feature can be appreciated by imaging studies (magnetic resonancy tomography), by palpation along the axis of a nerve, and by biopsy, and may be caused by axonal swelling or by myelin thickening. The differential diagnosis of enlarged peripheral nerves includes leprosy, hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy type 1 (about 30% of patients), but not type 2 (the axonal form), some other polyneuropathies, neurofibromatosis, and nerve tumors. A good review is available in Practical Neurology, 2003,3:40-45 by Michael Donaghy (no pubmed id).

Rare diseases that can present with this2

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category

Also called: Enlarged peripheral nerves