Mohammed Moinuddin Nawazi1, B. Ramesh2, Santosh Kumar3
BACKGROUND: Diabetic Neuropathy is one of the most common troublesome complications of diabetes mellitus. It is frequently associated with other microvascular complications like retinopathy and nephropathy. Early detection of peripheral neuropathy will prevent further progression of other microvascular complications
. METHODOLOGY: This cross sectional study was conducted in the Dept. of medicine at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Medical College for a period of 1year. A total of 50 subjects were taken, 36 were males, and 14 were females. The present study used the Diabetic Neuropathy Examination Score (DNE), which was designed by Meijer. Nerve conduction studies were done according to a standard protocol. All other routine investigations were done using standard procedures. RESULTS: In the study it was observed that out of the 29 subjects who were found to have neuropathy by NCS, 26 tested positive by the DNE score which gave a sensitivity of 89.7%.There is statistically significant association between clinical examination score (DNE) and nerve conduction study. It was found that there is statistically significant correlation between diabetic neuropathy and retinopathy (P<0.05) and microalbuminuria (P<0.001). From the xii present study it was found that there was statistically significant correlation between diabetic peripheral neuropathy with age (P<0.05), duration of diabetes (P<0.01), HbA1C levels (P<0.05) and systemic hypertension (P<0.01). It was also found that the correlation of diabetic peripheral neuropathy with sex, BMI, total serum cholesterol was not statistically significant.
CONCLUSION: There is statistically significant association between clinical examination scores (DNE) and nerve conduction study. Hence early detection of neuropathy retards the progression of other microvascular complications.
