Spinal cord lesions in diabetes mellitus. Somatosensory and motor evoked potentials and spinal conduction time in diabetes mellitus.
OBJECTIVE
Diabetic neuropathy and autonomic nervous system neuropathy are recognized as the most common clinical pictures of nervous system disorders caused by diabetes mellitus (DM). Damage to the brain and the spinal cord is rare. The aim of this work is to show the importance of somatosensory and motor evoked potentials (SEP and MEP) for the early diagnosis of nervous system damage related to diabetes mellitus.


METHODS
We examined spinal and cortical somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) after median and fibular nerve stimulation in diabetics and control subjects. We measured the latencies of individual wave deflections and peripheral and central conduction time (PCT and CCT) of spinal and cortical SEP. Similarly, transcranial magnetic stimulation was used for measuring the central and peripheral conduction time (CCT and PCT) in a group of type 1 diabetics and a control group of volunteers.


RESULTS
The examination SEP and MEP proved and confirmed the prolongation not only of peripheral conduction time, but also of the central conduction time - especially in spinal cord structures. An assumption that spinal cord changes are connected with the decreased number of myelinated fibers able to conduct the impulses from periphery and brain cortex, respectively, has to be accepted.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the use of somatosensory and motor evoked potentials (SEP and MEP) examination and conduction times measurement has significance in the confirmation of unapparent lesions of the spinal cord in diabetics of both types.
Kucera
Pavol
P
1st Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. pavol.kucera@faneba.sk
Goldenberg
Zoltán
Z
Varsik
Pavel
P
Buranova
Darina
D
Traubner
Pavel
P
D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003929:Diabetic Neuropathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology*; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000503:physiopathology*