The association between symptomatic sensory neuropathy and body stature in diabetic patients

doi:10.1016/S0168-8227(88)80003-2

Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice

Volume 4, Issue 2, 1988, Pages 95-98

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-8227(88)80003-2 Get rights and content

Summary

In the diabetic patient the clinical manifestations of peripheral neuropathy occur more commonly in the distributions of longer neurons. Utilizing height as a proxy variable, we have examined whether neuron length is also a determinant for the occurrence of peripheral neuropathy among diabetic patients. In studies performed at two sites (Sheffield and Miami) the heights of diabetic patients with symptomatic peripheral neuropathy were compared with those of non-neuropathic diabetic patients. At each site the neuropathic patients were significantly taller (P = 0.02 for Sheffield and P = 0.01 for Miami). These data were not biased by age or race. Body stature (as a proxy for neuron length) appears to be a constitutional risk factor for diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

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Cited by (15)

Height is an independent risk factor for neuropathy in diabetic men
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Height may increase the risk of diabetic polyneuropathy, but previous studies are inconclusive. Our purposes were to further examine the hypothesis that height (HT) is an independent risk factor for diabetic polyneuropathy and to determine which electrophysiologic measures are influenced by HT in diabetic subjects. We studied 170 Japanese American men (ages 43–73 years, mean 61) including: 69 diabetic men (mean HT 166 cm), 54 normal men (mean HT 167 cm), and 47 men with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (mean HT 164 cm), measuring 28 nerve conduction study (NCS) parameters. We used data from normal men in developing regression models to adjust NCS parameters for HT, age, and temperature. Factor analysis was employed to reduce the 28 NCS parameters to five physiologically meaningful factors, one of which, a factor representing median and peroneal sensory amplitudes, was significantly correlated with HT (r = −0.38, P = 0.0011) in diabetic men; taller subjects having smaller sensory nerve amplitudes. No significant correlation was found between this factor and body mass index. This factor had no correlation with HT in normal or IGT men. Our data do not confirm previous reports of associations between HT and slowed motor conduction velocities in diabetic subjects. This study does, however, support the hypothesis that HT is an independent risk factor for sensory polyneuropathy in diabetic subjects.
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Research ArticleThe association between symptomatic sensory neuropathy and body stature in diabetic patients

Summary

Am. J. Med.

Am. J. Med.

‘Control’ and diabetes

New Engl. J. Med.

Diabetes mellitus and its degenerative complications: a prospective study of 4,400 patients observed between 1947 and 1973

Diabetes Care

Nerve conduction velocities in untreated maturity onset diabetes: relation to fasting plasma glucose amd glycosylated hemoglobin

Ann. Intern. Med.

Research Article
The association between symptomatic sensory neuropathy and body stature in diabetic patients