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

ABSTRACT

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