Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Sensitive neuropathy is a degenerative complication of diabetes, precipitated by chronic glycemic imbalance. It is estimated that it is present in 50% of diabetics, and that it requires treatment in 10 to 20% of cases.

This study aimedto assess the prevalence of sensitive neuropathy and to identify the factors associated with it in a population of patients with diabetes.

Patients and Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical, prospective cross-sectional study, involving 100 diabetic patients. Screening for sensitive neuropathy (SN) was done by the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament test (10g). We studied the association of SN with: Smoking, diabetes duration, body mass index (BMI), glycemic control and the presence of diabetic retinopathy.

Results: The mean age was 54 ± 12.9 years, The sex ratio was 0.78. Diabetes was type 2 in the majority of cases (78%). The average duration of diabetes was 13.62 ± 6.29 years. 78% of the population has been unbalanced. The prevalence of sensitive neuropathy was 41%. In univariate analysis, the factors associated with NS were smoking (P = 10^–3, OR [95% CI] = 5.67 [2.2; 14.1], daration of diabetes >15 years (P = 10^–3, OR [95% CI] = 7.76 [3.1; 19.1]), diabetic retinopathy (P = 0.001, OR [95% CI] = 4, 6 [1.8; 11.6]) and glycemic imbalance (P = 0.015, OR [95% CI] = 4 [1.2 ; 13]. BMI was not an associated factor (P = 0.509). In multivariate analysis, the factors associated with NS were the presence of diabetic retinopathy (P = 10-3, OR [95% CI] = 7.25 [2.5; 21]), smoking (P = 0.007, OR [95% CI] = 4.9 [1.5; 15.4]) and the duration of diabetes (P = 0.032, OR [95% CI] = 3.3 [0.8; 13.3]. The glycemic balance was not associated with NS (P = 0.09, OR [95% CI] = 3.3 [0.8; 13.3]).

Conclusion: Our results match those of the literature for most of the factors studied.