Utility of the cutaneous silent period in patients with diabetes mellitus

• Published in: Journal of the neurological sciences Vol. 293; no. 1; pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Kim, Byung-Jo, Kim, Nan-Hee, Kim, Sin Gon, Roh, Hakjae, Park, Ha-Rim, Park, Moon-Ho, Park, Kun-Woo, Cho, S. Charles, So, Yuen T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.06.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aged; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Cutaneous silent period; Diabetes mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - pathology; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 - physiopathology; Diabetic polyneuropathy; Electric Stimulation - methods; Electromyography - methods; History, 16th Century; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis; Muscle Contraction - physiology; Nerve conduction study; Neural Conduction - physiology; Neural Inhibition - physiology; Neurology; Peripheral Nerves - physiopathology; Reaction Time - physiology; Skin - innervation; Small-fiber neuropathy; Statistics as Topic; Cutaneous silent period; Nerve conduction study; Diabetic polyneuropathy; Small-fiber neuropathy; Diabetes mellitus; Endocrinopathy; Human; Nervous system diseases; Neuropathy; Silent period; Polyneuropathy; Conduction velocity; Nerve conduction; Skin; Peripheral nerve disease
• ISSN: 0022-510X; 1878-5883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jns.2010.03.032

Abstract We performed this study to evaluate whether or not the cutaneous silent period (CSP) is a useful metric to identify small-fiber neuropathy in diabetic patients. The CSP was measured from the abductor pollicis brevis muscle in 30 healthy controls and 110 diabetic patients, who in turn were divided into 3 subgroups (patients with large-fiber neuropathy, patients with small-fiber neuropathy, and asymptomatic patients). The measured CSP and clinical characteristics were compared among the groups. The power of the CSP in discriminating patients from controls and any correlation with other clinical variables were analyzed. Each patient subgroup had a significantly delayed CSP latency compared to the controls. The latency of patients with large-fiber neuropathy was also significantly prolonged compared to the other subgroups of patients. The CSP latency was the only variable to discriminate patients. The latency showed a significant correlation with the late responses in nerve conduction studies. Thus, the CSP latency may be a useful tool in evaluating small neural fiber function in diabetic patients.