Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy in diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a disease of modem world, with a great impact on the life of the affected individual. Autonomic neuropathy (AN), also called visceral neuropathy, is a disease of the autonomic nervous system affecting mostly the internal organs. The diagnosis of AN can be made in early stages, and is called sub-clinical neuropathy. Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) correlates with a lot of signs and symptoms, which are more or less specific. CAN is associated with poor prognosis and may result in severe symptomatic diseases, but it is also associated with silent ischemia. In conclusion, CAN is a very important complication of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes which can be early diagnosed by some specific test and should be taken into account in all the cases, even in the asymptomatic ones.