ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is the most common endocrine disease of human with prevalence of 1 to 4 percent. Peripheral neuropathy is one of the chronic complications of diabetes and its prevalence is not properly known, but worldwide is from 5 to 66 percent. The prevalence of this complication is not known in Iran. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy in definite cases of diabetes type 2 and related factors in Dena town-ship in fall 2004. This was a cross sectional descriptive study that 40 definite cases of type 2 diabetes [28 females and 12 males] whose duration of disease were between 5 to 25 years were selected randomly. After informing and taking history and physical examination of the subjects, the nerve conduction study and electromyography were performed for them. Then the data were analyzed by SPSS software and X[2] and Fischer exact tests. Results of this study showed that prevalence of diabetes in urban and rural areas of Dena township were 1 and 0.8 percent respectively. Prevalence of neuropathy was 52.5% which comprised of 17.5% peripheral neuropathy, 22.5% carpal tunnel syndrome [CTS] and 12.5% combined form. The distal symmetrical sensorimotor peripheral polyneuropathy and carpal tunnel syndrome were the most common peripheral neuropathy and entrapment mononeuropathy, respectively. In this study, there were no significant statistical correlation between peripheral neuropathy and sex, age, duration of diabetes, fasting blood sugar, underlying disease, retinopathy and nephropathy, but significant correlation was found between mononeuropaty [CTS] and fasting blood sugar. Type 2 diabetes mellitus causes high prevalence of neuropathy [peripheral neuropathy and mono neuropathy] which is not related to duration of diabetes, retinopathy, nephropathy, age and underlying disease. We concluded that early diagnosis of disease could be done by educating of people and this can lead to a decrease in complications of diabetes