Nerve conduction study of sensory distal nerves in mild diabetic foot neuropathy

Nerve conduction studies of distal sensory nerves are used in diagnosis of polyneuropathy. However at present, there is little data about electrophysiological assessment of these nerves according to severity of polyneuropathy. In this study, we aimed to evaluate sural, dorsal sural and medial plantar nerve conduction studies in different grades of mild diabetic sensory polyneuropathy. Twenty diabetic patients with mild degree of sensory polyneuropathy according to neuropathy disability score, and 20 healthy subjects served as control group were included in this study. In all subjects, motor nerve conduction of posterior tibial nerve, F wave, and sensory nerve conduction of sural, dorsal sural and medial plantar nerves were performed bilaterally. There was a significant statistical reduction in the sural, dorsal sural and medial plantar nerves amplitude with a reduction in the conduction velocities and delay in peak latencies of these nerves between diabetic patients and controls. The sensitivity of medial plantar nerve amplitude was 90%. However, dorsal sural nerve amplitude showed a significant reduction with different grades of diabetic polyneuropathy [p<0.05]. Medial plantar nerve has the highest diagnostic sensitivity. Dorsal sural nerve may be used in following up progression in mild diabetic sensory polyneuropathy

Is acquired total protein s deficiency associated with antiphospholipid antibodies in systemic lupus erythematosus?

Hypothesis: protein S [PS] is a vitamin K dependent plasma protein, and it's free from is required for protein C to be functional. Antiphospholipid antibodies [apl] may cause functional PS deficiency by binding free PS. In patients with SLE have increased incidence of apl, which have been associated with thrombotic events

Objective: to determine the level of total protein S and its relation to [apl]

Methodology: 22 SLE patients diagnosed according to ACR revised criteria [Tan et al., 1982] and ten healthy subjects were included in this study. Assays for protein S, IgG, up1 were performed in patients and control groups

Results: the protein S was lower in the patients than the control and the difference was highly significant. There was a highly significant differences between the level of PS in patients with apl+ve compared with apl-ve patients [p<0.01]

Conclusion: this study confirms an association between apl and PS deficiency

Musculoskeletal pain in obese Egyptians

Obesity is associated with musculoskeletal pain and osteoarthritis. This study compares the prevalence of work-restricting musculoskeletal pain in obese and general population and investigates changes in the incidence of and recovery from musculoskeletal pain after surgical or conventional obesity treatment. A random sample of 50 subjects from the general population was compared with 50 obese subjects. For the obese subjects, information about musculoskeletal pain was also collected 6 and 12 months after obesity surgery or the start of non-surgical treatment. In both sexes, work-restricting pain in the neck and back regions and in the hip, knee and ankle joints was more common in the obese subjects than in the control population. Operated obese women had a lower incidence of work-restricting pain in the knee and ankle joints as compared with the conventionally treated control group over 6 and 12 months. Among subjects reporting symptoms at baseline, the recovery rate for pain in the knee and ankle joints in obese men and pain in the neck and back and in the hip, knee and ankle joints in obese women improved in the surgical group as compared with the control group after 12 months. Obese subjects have more problems with work-restricting musculoskeletal pain than the general population. Surgical obesity treatment reduces the long-term risk of developing work-restricting musculoskeletal pain and increases the likelihood of recovering from such pain