Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) and fibromyalgia (FM) are frequently co-occurring medical diagnoses in patients referred to the urology clinic for secondary and tertiary treatment options.
Abundant literature has shown that many patients with FM have small fiber polyneuropathy (SFPN) that can be confirmed via skin punch biopsy and immunological staining to measure nerve density.
This finding of SFPN provides a therapeutic target for FM and in this article we hypothesize and provide rationale for the idea that this same phenomenon (SFPN) might explain, in some IC/BPS patients, the finding of widespread pain and likewise provide a therapeutic target for these patients.
International urogynecology journal. 2019 Jun 25 [Epub ahead of print]
Catherine A Matthews, Shaun P Deveshwar, Robert J Evans, Gopal Badlani, Stephen J Walker
Department of Urology/Female Pelvic Health, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC, USA., Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, 391 Technology Way, Winston Salem, NC, 27101, USA., Department of Urology/Female Pelvic Health, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. .