Malaesthesias (Paresthesias): Or something else? Differential Diagnosis

Blood, hematopoietic organs-immune system (D50-D90).

  • Polycythemia – disease in which there are too many red blood cells (RBCs) in the blood.

Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

Cardiovascular system (I00-I99)

  • Apoplexy (stroke)
  • Ischemic heart disease
  • Peripheral vascular disease (vascular disease), unspecified.

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Helminthiasis (worm disease).
  • Herpes zoster (shingles)
  • Syphilis (lues; venereal disease)

Musculoskeletal system and connective tissue (M00-M99).

Neoplasms – tumor diseases (C00-D48).

  • Brain tumors, unspecified
  • Spinal cord tumors, unspecified
  • Tumors in the area of peripheral nerves, not specified

Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99)

  • Alcohol abuse (alcohol dependence)
  • Anterior spinal artery syndrome – circulatory disturbance of the anterior spinal artery, usually acute or subacute and without antecedents. Symptoms: acute with spinal shock for a period of weeks to months with failure of all functions below the lesion (injury), radicular pain, dissociated sensory disturbance (damage to the tractus spinothalamicus or spinothalamic fibers in the anterior commissure with impaired pain and temperature sensation with preserved touch and vibration sensation); initially flaccid, later spastic paresis (paralysis) at lesion level, trophic disturbances, and bladder and rectal dysfunction.
  • Brown-Sequard syndrome – symptom complex occurring in hemiplegic damage to the spinal cord, with dissociated sensory disturbances and muscle paralysis.
  • Diabetic polyneuropathy – disorders of peripheral nerves or parts of nerves secondary to diabetes mellitus.
  • Epilepsy
  • Funicular myelosis
  • Hysteria
  • Sciatica
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome (KTS) – nerve compression syndrome of the forearm due to compression of the median nerve.
  • Compression of spinal cord or peripheral nerves, unspecified.
  • Migraine with focal neurologic symptoms.
  • Multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Myelitis (inflammation of the spinal cord)
  • Nerve lesions (nerve damage), unspecified.
  • Polyneuropathy – generic term for certain diseases of the peripheral nervous system affecting multiple nerves (primarily small nerves of the arms and legs).
  • Somatoform disorder with hyperventilation.
  • Syringomyelia – destruction of the tissue of the spinal cord due to defective development.
  • Transient ischemic attack (TIA) – sudden disturbance of blood flow to the brain, resulting in neurological disorders that regress within 24 hours

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).

  • Tetany – syndrome of neuromuscular hyperexcitability.

Injuries, poisonings and other consequences of external causes (S00-T98).

Drugs

Environmental exposures – intoxications (poisonings).