Assessment of Peripheral Neuropathy Using Measurement of the Current Perception Threshold with the Neurometer® in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of current perception threshold (CPT) measurement in peripheral neuropathy in type 1 diabetic patients by using the Neurometer(®), a nerve measuring instrument.
Methods: 52 patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus with a disease duration of less than five years and normal neuropathy symptom score (NSS), neuropathy disability score (NDS) and sensory nerve conduction velocity (SCV), and 40 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Measurement of CPT using the Neurometer(®) at 2000, 250 and 5 Hz assesses function in the bilateral median nerve and sural nerve in all studied cases. We also evaluated the glycated hemoglobin, microalbuminuria, urinary albumin/creatinine ratio and other metabolism indexes of all patients.
Results: The CPT of the bilateral median nerve and sural nerve was significantly lower in diabetic patients (P<0.01). Moreover, the number of median nerve injuries in the diabetic group (left side 8/52, right side 8/52) is significantly different from the number of its ipsilateral sural nerve injuries (left side 28/52, right side 22/52) (left side P<0.01, right side P<0.01). By comparing those with DPN and those without DPN in the diabetic group, DPN groups had significantly higher glycated hemoglobin (t=2.518, P<0.05). Using binary logistic regression, high glycated hemoglobin was identified to be an independent risk factor of DPN incidence (OR (95% CI): 1.317 (1.013 -1.712), P<0.05).
Conclusion: These data suggest that CPT is useful in early detection of peripheral neuropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, the lower limb nerve is more vulnerable than the upper limb nerve. In addition, patients with DPN had higher glycated hemoglobin which is an independent risk factor of DPN.
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