We reviewed the electrophysiologic findings and the relationship of diabetic polyneuropathy (DMPN) with the age of the patients, the duration of diabetes mellitus, and the blood glucose level in 143 patients with diabetes mellitus. In this study, motor and sensory nerve conduction studies, needle electromyography, brainstem evoked potentials (BSEP), pattern-shift visual evoked potentials (VEP) were recorded in the subjects, and metabolic control was evaluated in terms of glycemia and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C).

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of the electrophysiologic procedures and to find the clinical correlations of them in diabetic polyneuropathy.

The results were as follows:

1) The age distribution was from 10 to 83 years of age (mean 52.3 years).

2) The nerve conduction study revealed diabetic polyneuropathy in 92 of 143 subjects (64.3%) with significantly increased frequency in accordance with the age of the subjects and the duration of diabetes mellitus (p<0.05).

3) The levels of blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin were significantly high in the dibetic polyneuropathy group as compared with the normal group (p<0.05).

4) The electrophysiologic study revealed abnormality in H-reflex (91.3%), F-wave (peroneal; 86.8%, tibial; 83.7%, ulnar; 76.1%), motor and sensory nerve conduction study, and electromyography (87.0%). The most frequently involved sensory nerve was superficial peroneal nerve (76.1%), and as for the motor nerve, deep peroneal nerve (72.8%) was involved most frequently. But these findings had no significant correlations with the blood glucose level in the subjects with dibetes mellitus (p>0.05).

5) The BSEP study revealed abnormal findings in 93 of 128 subjects (72.7%) with significantly increased frequency in accordance with the duration of diabetes mellitus (p<0.05), and the latenies of peak III and V and the interpeak laterpeak latencies of I-III and I-V were prolonged significantly (p<0.05).

6) The VEP study revealed abnormal findings in 80 of 125 subjects (64.0%) with the tendency of increased frequency in accordance with the duration of diabetes mellitus (p>0.05), and the P100 latencies were significantly prolonged in the abnormal group as compared with the normal group (p<0.05).