Clinical Representation of the Different Rheumatological Manifestations of Diabetes

Abstract

The various rheumatological clinical manifestations related to diabetes constitute a group of pathologies secondary to diabetes, regardless of the type of diabetes (type 1 or type 2), in most cases the manifestations are discovered at an advanced stage of diabetes, on average after 10 years of evolution. The different conditions of this group are frequent and diverse because they affect the majority of patients followed for diabetes. They are most often unrecognized or under-diagnosed in current practice, due to their clinical presentation which is characterized by a great polymorphism. These different manifestations can affect several structures of the locomotor system (bones, tendons, muscles, nerves or even joints and their synovial membranes) and constitute a real problem of differential diagnosis with the most commonly encountered rheumatological conditions. These clinical manifestations are either directly related to diabetes (chronic sustained hyperglycemia) or indirectly related to the various complications of diabetes; their prevalence is therefore correlated with poor glycemic control and/or the occurrence of other complications of diabetes. In this article, we describe the main rheumatological manifestations, their clinical and paraclinical diagnostic methods, their evolutionary profiles and their prevention as well as the different management in practice, and this will be a reminder in order to improve the practitioner's attitude towards the different clinical presentations of these affections.