Detection of early motor involvement in diabetic polyneuropathy using a novel MUNE method – MScanFit MUNE

Hospital Aim To examine whether a novel MUNE method so called MScanFit MUNE (MScan) can detect early motor involvement in diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN). Methods In this study, 100 patients with diabetes mellitus type II will be prospectively included as a part of International Diabetic Neuropathy Consortium (IDNC) project. Preliminary results of 24 patients (18 males, 6 females, mean age: 63, range: (44–74) will be presented here. Nerve conduction studies (NCS) of three motor (median, peroneal, tibial) and three sensory (bilateral sural and median) nerves and MScan in abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscle were done in all patients.NCS results were compared to laboratory controls. MScan results were compared to 20 age-matched healthy subjects. Results From NCSs, DPN was classified by Dyck’s criteria. Six of 24 patients (25%) had DPN while 18 patients had normal NCS. None of the 24 patients had decreased CMAP amplitude of median nerve. MScan was abnormal in eight of 24 patients (33%). Of these eight, two patients had DPN and six had normal NCS. Discussion Normal MScan in patients with DPN may be due to length dependent feature of DPN, thereby unaffected upper extremities as these patients had slight sensory neuropathy. However, MScan could detect abnormality in nerves with normal CMAP amplitude and normal NCS. Conclusion MScan may improve electrodiagnosis of DPN by detection of early motor involvement and motor unit loss. Significance MScan is a promising novel method which may be useful in quantifying motor unit loss in different neuromuscular disorders including DPN.