Peripheral neuropathy in type 2 diabetic patients attending diabetic clinics in al-Azhar university hospitals

Abstract EN

Background : Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a common neurological complication in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) which affects their quality of life.

Neuropathy can lead to secondary complications such as ulceration and amputation.

Identification of risk factors associated with PN can.

help to prevent these complications.

Objective : To determine the frequency of PN and the risk factors associated with its occurrence in the studied diabetic patients.

Subjects and Methods : A cross sectional study was conducted in two hospitals of Al-Azhar university hospitals (El-Hussein and Bab-El sharia hospitals), Cairo, Egypt.

The study recruited 300 patients with type 2 DM who attending the outpatient diabetic clinics in the two studied hospitals, from the 1st of October 2005 through January 2006.

A clinical neurological examination was done on all patients where the Michigan Neuropathic Diabetic Scoring (MNDS) criteria were used to make a diagnosis of PN.

Subsequently, we considered patients with PN as study cases and those without PN as controls to assess the risk factors associated with PN.

Statistical analysis including multivariate logistic regression analysis was done.

Results: The frequency of PN among the studied subjects was 29.7%.

Related risk factors were: older age above 60 years (odds ratio (OR)= 73.

0 ; 95 % confidence interval (CI)= 14.2-377.2), associated moderate to severe hypertension (OR = 10.

2 ; 95 % CI = 2.

8-38.

0) and associated ischemic heart disease (IHD) (OR = 3.

80 ; 95 % C I = 1.

50-9.

80), poor control of DM (OR = 9.

1 ; 95 % C I = 2.

6-32.

1), and duration of DM with an OR of 6.

2 (95 % CI = 2.

1-18.

7) for those patients with more than 10 years duration of DM.

The risk of PN, however, was reduced significantly among married patients and those reported high educational and family income levels.

Conclusions : Diabetic PN is a considerable complication of DM.

The related risk factors were old age, prolonged and poorly controlled DM, and associated medical disorders.

Education, marriage, and high family income; however, appeared to have a protective effect against PN.