[Decreased brain function in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus]

Neurobehavioral and electrophysiologic studies were carried out to determine the effect of diabetes mellitus on brain function. Fifty one non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients were compared with 30 nondiabetic controls that are equally matched in age, sex and educational level. The aim of this study was to determine the change of brain function in diabetics, and to evaluate the correlation between brain function and clinical factors. The results showed: In the diabetic group, 'the Clinical Memory Test' performances on MQ, the five subtests were respectively lower than those of the controls. 'The Fourth Exception Test', 'the Motor Stability Test' and 'the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale' results were significantly disordered, too. The latencies of wave I, III, V of BAEP, wave N65 P100 N125 P160 of VEP, wave P1 N1 P2 N2 N3 P4 of SEP and the interpeak latency of I-V of BAEP were prolonged significantly compared with the controls. Within the diabetics, there was correlation between I-V interpeak latency of BAEP, P100 peak latency of VEP and serum creatinine. These results demonstrate that brain dysfunction are present in NIDDM, and these brain dysfunction correlate with the kidney function.