Sural Nerve Conduction Studies in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Clinically Undetectable Peripheral Neuropathy

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is one of the most commonly occurring microvascular complications accounting for 28% of all the complications in diabetics ³. It is a progressive process that has a long asymptomatic stage

The present study was planned to evaluate the Sural nerve conduction studies in type 2 diabetic subjects for early detection and quantification of peripheral neuropathy.

Study was done in Gandhi Medical College, Bhopal and The study was approved by the ethical committee of Gandhi Medical College. 40 Type 2 DM patients with clinically undetectable Peripheral Neuropathy and 40 age matched controls were selected for the study based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and consent to participate in the study. For the nerve conduction study test, RMS EMG EP Mark II was used.

Showed significant (p<0.05) increase of Distal latency and decrease of Conduction Velocity and Amplitude in sural nerve except conduction velocity of Right Sural nerve of the clinically undetectable peripheral neuropathy group as compared to control group.

Nerve conduction studies can diagnose Diabetic Neuropathy at a very early stage even before symptoms & signs set in. Thus nerve conduction velocity can be used as non-invasive method to assess early asymptomatic diabetic neuropathy in diabetic patients.