Hypertriglyceridemia may cause a subclinical peripheral neuropathy.

Recently few patients with a painful neuropathy, attributed to extremely high triglyceride levels, were reported. In a prospective study, we evaluated 16 patients with marked hypertriglyceridemia without other causes of neuropathy, using nerve conduction and autonomic function tests. Six subjects (37%) showed mild signs of an asymptomatic motor and/or sensory and/or autonomic axonal polyneuropathy. The study demonstrates, that hypertriglyceridemia may be associated with a mild axonal polyneuropathy, usually subclinical, in significantly more patients than previously considered.