Nerve Conduction Abnormalities in Pre-Diabetics and Asymptomatic Diabetics

To determine the electrophysiological abnormalities in pre-diabetics and/ or asymptomatic diabetics and analyse the role of nerve conduction for recognizing distal symmetric polyneuropathy.

A total of 180 subjects were categorized as: Group A: healthy Subjects (n=60), Group B Pre-diabetics (IFG +IGT, n=60) and Group C: Asymptomatic type 2 diabetics (n=60).

Electrophysiological studies revealed that amplitude of B/L Sural SNAP and tibial CMAP was significantly lower in affected pre-diabetics and asymptomatic diabetics. The presence of significant f wave latency was also noted in both these groups, more among asymptomatic diabetics. The observations on distal latency and nerve conduction velocity of sensory and motor nerves were statistically nonsignificant.

Sensory nerve abnormality was more obvious than motor nerve abnormality in the pre-diabetic subjects. The changes in amplitude of motor nerve abnormality was observed late in course of disease i.e. in asymptomatic diabetic group than pre-diabetics. The amplitude of sensory nerve action potential and F wave latency parameters were the most sensitive measures of peripheral neuropathy in early diabetics in our study.