Diabetic neuropathy is one of systemic complications of diabetes mellitus and its incidence was variously reported to be from 5% to 60%. The exact pathophysiologic mechanisms of diabetic neuropathy are unclear, and the pathology of nerve in diabetic neuropathy is also unclear, for some suggested segmental demyelination as primary lesion and others axonal degeneration and demyelination. It is also unclear which electrodiagnostic parameter is most sensitive in the diagnosis of diabetic neuropathy. So, our purpose was to find out ⸁ the effect of hyperglycemia in the induction of diabetic neuropathy. ⸂ the most sensitive eletrodiagnostic parameters. ⸃ the primary pathologic lesion in diabetic neuropathy. ⸄ the difference of sensitivity to hyperglycemia between animals.

We induced diabetes in rabbits and rats with alloxan, which selectively destroysislet cells of pancreas. In the first part of experiment, we tried to induce various levels of gluoce according to different levels of alloxan injected, but we failed. The blood glucose levels, which were moderately high returned to normal levels after 2 weeks of follow up. So, we decided to inject 150mg/kg of alloxan to induce diabetes in rabbits. The inductionrate was 36% and the average blood glucose level was 351±142mg/dl. We performed electrophysiologic studies every week for 8 weeks but we failed to find out any evidence of diabetic neuropathy. We performed follow up studies for 12 weeks in 5 rabbits, 16 weeks in 2, 24 weeks in 2 but we also failed. The pathologic findings, which were performed at 8, 12, 16, 24 weeks of follow up also showed no evidence of diabetic neuropathy. We performed similar studies in mice with alloxan and we found out that in mice it was possible to induce diabetic neuropathy as other reports. As a conclusion, for we have failed to induce diabetic neuropathy in rabbits, we could not find out the effect of hyperglycemia in the induction of diabetic neuropathy, the most sensitive eletrodiagnostic parameters, and the primary pathologic lesion in diabetic neuropathy.

In rats, the involvement of myelin and axon occured nearly at the same time, which was 5 weeks after the induction of diabetes. There might be some difference in sensitivity to diabetic neuropathy between rats and rabbits.

Keywords :Diabetic neuropathy, Electrodiagnostic studies, Animal study, Alloxan