Diabetic Neuropathy

Abstract

Dysfunction and damage of the somatic and autonomic nervous systems leads to diabetic neuropathy. Simply defined it is characterized by “The presence of symptoms and /or signs of peripheral nerve dysfunction in people with diabetes after the exclusion of other causes” (1). For the practicing physician, a clinically relevant classification is preferred (2) (Table 1). However, to enable quantification for epidemiology and research, particularly for clinical trials, a more detailed definition that includes subclinical neuropathy is required (3,4). An established paradigm for use in clinical trials includes the following: • Neuropathic symptoms (NSS: neuropathy symptom score). • Neuropathic deficits (NIS: neuropathy impairment score). • Motor/sensory nerve conduction velocity (MS:NCV). • quantitative sensory testing (QST) • Autonomic function testing (AFT). KeywordsDiabetic NeuropathyAldose ReductaseAutonomic NeuropathySural NerveNerve Conduction VelocityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.