SynthesisEuropean journal of neurology2025
Corneal Confocal Microscopy to Diagnose Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in European journal of neurology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Corneal Confocal Microscopy to Diagnose Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.European journal of neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Corneal nerve regeneration: treatments and monitoring approaches.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- Corneal nerve imaging in systemic neuropathy: A minireview of experimental and precision medicine applications.World journal of experimental medicine · 2026Review
- Diabetic Corneal Neuropathy as a Window Into Diabetic Foot Risk: A Large-Scale Association Study.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Corneal Nerve Fiber Morphology and Biological Age in Healthy Adults.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- An Annotated Corneal Confocal Microscopy Dataset for Nerve Segmentation and Clinical Characterization.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Emerging Technologies in Corneal Nerve Evaluation for Dry Eye and Ocular Surface Disease: A Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesPeripheral neuropathy (PN) may be diagnosed late or may remain undiagnosed. Studies have shown that measurement of corneal nerve fiber length (CNFL) using corneal confocal microscopy (CCM) may have diagnostic utility in diabetic and other peripheral neuropathies.
methodsThe main databases [CENTRAL, Embase (Ovid), and PubMed] were searched for peer-reviewed literature. Gray literature searching was undertaken using the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. The updated Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines were used by two authors independently for screening and data extraction. The primary outcome of CNFL was represented by the standardized mean difference and 95% confidence interval, and differences between healthy controls (HC), patients with sub-clinical (PN-), and clinical (PN+) peripheral neuropathy were assessed. Sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the risk of bias.
resultsWe identified n = 52 eligible studies (n = 2995 participants) reporting CNFL across 34 different conditions associated with PN. CNFL was significantly lower in PN+ patients compared to HC (standardized mean difference -1.12, 95% confidence interval -1.32 to -0.33, p < 0.00001), in PN- patients compared to HC (-0.78, -0.99 to -0.57, p < 0.00001), and in PN+ compared to PN- patients (-0.93, -1.53 to -0.33, p = 0.002). The results remained significant following sensitivity analysis to adjust for the risk of potential detection bias. The results remained significant independent of the choice of a random or fixed effects model.
conclusionsThis systematic review and meta-analysis shows that CNFL has utility in the diagnosis of peripheral neuropathies.
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