Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The aim of our study was to evaluate the weight status of a population with type 2 diabetes and with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and to study its association with hyperalgesic diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study about 100 T2DM patients hospitalized in department C of the national institute of nutrition of Tunis, and having diabetic peripheral neuropathy, diagnosed using the monofilament test and the DN4 score. For each patient eligible for the inclusion criteria’s, we conducted an interview and physical examination to collect epidemiological characteristics, characteristics of T2DM (duration, glycemic balance, antidiabetic treatment and degenerative complications), and we collected biological parameters from medical records. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.

Results: The mean age was 60.4±10.6 years with extremes of 32 and 72 years and a median of 49.5 years. The sex ratio in our population was 0.53. The majority of the population (71%) had a secondary or higher level of education. The majority was not smoker (41%). We did not identify any use of illicit substances. The diabetes was type 2 in all cases. The average diabetes duration was 14±5.2 years with extremes of 6 and 21 years. All patients were treated with insulin therapy combined with metformin in 65% of cases. Hyperalgesic diabetic neuropathy (DN4≥4) was the most frequent degenerative complication (56%) followed by diabetic retinopathy (38%). Mean BMI was 29,1±5,7 kg/m² with extremes of 23 and 40.2 kg/m². 50% of the population has a BMI of 30,55 kg/m². BMI was normal in 21 % of the cases. Almost half of the population was obese (49%). Obesity was class 1,2 and 3 in 32%, 9% and 8% respectively. According to BMI, 66,7% (n=14) patients with normal BMI, 63,3% (n=19) of those with preobesity, 78,1% (n=25) of those with obesity class 1, 100% (n=9) of those with obesity class 2 and 87,5% (n=7) of those with obesity class 3 had hyperalgesic diabetic neuropathy with a statistically significant difference between these percentages (P=0.021).

Conclusion: According to our result, weight reduction seems to be a promising non-pharmacological way to act on neuropathic pain in patients with type 2 diabetes.