title: Relationship of Vascular Factors on Electrophysiologic Severity of Diabetic Neuropathy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of vascular factors on the electrophysiologic severity of diabetic neuropathy (DPN).
  
  
  METHODS
  Total 530 patients with type 2 diabetes were enrolled retrospectively. We rated severity of DPN from 1 (normal) to 4 (severe) based on electrophysiologic findings. We collected the data concerning vascular factors (including brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity [PWV], ankle brachial index, ultrasound of carotid artery, lipid profile from the blood test, and microalbuminuria [MU] within 24 hours urine), and metabolic factors of diabetes (such as glycated hemoglobin [HbA1c]). We analyzed the differences among the four subgroups using χ(2) test and ANOVA, and ordinal logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between significant variables and severity of DPN.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The severity of DPN was significantly associated with duration of diabetes, HbA1c, existence of diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy, PWV, presence of plaque, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and MU (p<0.05). Among these variables, HbA1c and presence of plaque were more significantly related with severity of DPN in logistic regression analysis (p<0.001), and presence of plaque showed the highest odds ratio (OR=2.52).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that markers for vascular wall properties, such as PWV and presence of plaque, are significantly associated with the severity of DPN. The presence of plaque was more strongly associated with the severity of DPN than other variables.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.; Brain Convergence Research Center, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Bom
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Pyun
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hee Kyu
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Kwon
keywords: Carotid stenosis; Diabetic angiopathies; Diabetic neuropathies; Electromyography; Pulse wave analysis