Impaired vibrotactile sense showed no association with insulinoma associated protein 2 and glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibodies in paediatric type 1 diabetes.

Abstract

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a well-known complication of type 1 diabetes in children and adults and may present early after diagnosis. It is frequently asymptomatic in young patients, but can be confirmed using screening tools, such as monofilaments, tuning forks or a biothesiometer. Electrophysiology is the gold standard examination for detecting DPN, but is seldom used due to lack of resources and because it is time consuming, expensive and possibly unpleasant for subjects (1). Multi-frequency vibrometry can also determine impaired vibrotactile sense, a sign of large nerve fibre pathology (2). We previously studied this tool in 72 asymptomatic children and adolescents aged 8-18 with type 1 diabetes and 13 had impaired vibrotactile sense (2).