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The Relationship Between Sural Nerve Morphometric Findings and Measures of Peripheral Nerve Function in Mild Diabetic Neuropathy
Author(s) -
Veves A.,
Malik R. A.,
Lye R. H.,
Masson E. A.,
Sharma A. K.,
Schady W.,
Boulton A. J. M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
diabetic medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.474
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1464-5491
pISSN - 0742-3071
DOI - 10.1111/j.1464-5491.1991.tb01530.x
Subject(s) - medicine , sural nerve , nerve conduction velocity , electrophysiology , diabetic neuropathy , sensory system , peripheral neuropathy , sensory nerve , diabetes mellitus , cardiology , anatomy , endocrinology , neuroscience , biology
The morphological findings in sural nerve biopsy specimens from 15 diabetic patients with mild neuropathy were compared with control biopsies from eight non‐neuropathic, nondiabetic subjects, and correlations were sought with electrophysiological studies and quantitative sensory tests for vibration, thermal, and current perception thresholds. Myelinated fibre density was reduced compared with control biopsies (4042 ± 2090 (±SD) vs 6800 ± 1100 mm −2 ; p < 0.01). A strong correlation existed between myelinated fibre density and sural sensory conduction velocity ( r = 0.84, p < 0.001), sural action potential amplitude ( r = 0.74, p < 0.001), peroneal motor conduction velocity ( r = 0.58, p < 0.02), and median sensory amplitude ( r = 0.64, p < 0.01) but there was no correlation between myelinated fibre density and any quantitative sensory test. We conclude that conventional electrophysiological tests in the lower limb are reliable surrogate measures for structural abnormalities in early diabetic neuropathy.