Cytokine-related and histological biomarkers for neuropathic pain assessment

SUMMARY Neuropathic pain (NP) is a disabling condition that may occur following a disease or a lesion of the somatosensory nervous system. With an estimated prevalence of up to 8.2% in the general population, NP is common, and robust and objective diagnostic tools are warranted for pain assessment and follow-up. In the last years research has focused on defining biochemical and histological markers for this purpose, and possible systemic (blood, cerebrospinal fluid) and local (skin and nerve) targets have been investigated in a number of different NP disorders. This article focuses on an update giving an overview over some potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of NP, and will discuss their clinical relevance.