Early diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy is important for the successful treatment of diabetes mellitus.

Research group at the Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, China, led by Dr. Jianlin Wang sought to establish a sensitive index for nerve conduction studies in the early diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy in 500 patients with diabetes mellitus.

Nerve conduction studies revealed that distal motor latency was longer, sensory nerve conduction velocity was slower, and sensory nerve action potential and amplitude of compound muscle action potential were significantly lower in the median, ulnar, posterior tibial and common peroneal nerve in the diabetic groups compared with control subjects.

Moreover, the alterations were more obvious in patients with symptoms of peripheral neuropathy.

Of the 500 diabetic patients, neural conduction abnormalities were detected in 358 cases (71.6%), among which impairment of the common peroneal nerve was most prominent.

Sensory nerve abnormality was more obvious than motor nerve abnormality in the diabetic groups.

Results reveal that varying degrees of nerve conduction changes are present in the early, asymptomatic stage of diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the amplitude of sensory nerve action potential is the most sensitive measure of peripheral neuropathy.

The relevant study has been published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 14, 2014).

Article: " Amplitude of sensory nerve action potential in early stage diabetic peripheral neuropathy: an analysis of 500 cases," by Yunqian Zhang1, Jintao Li2, Tingjuan Wang1, Jianlin Wang1 (1 Department of Neurology, the Fourth Affliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China; 2 Neuroscience Institute, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, Yunnan Province, China)

Zhang YQ, Li JT, Wang TJ, Wang JL. Amplitude of sensory nerve action potential in early stage diabetic peripheral neuropathy: an analysis of 500 cases. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(14):1389-1394. Neural Regeneration Research