Clinical Utility of Facial and Dorsal Sural Nerve Conduction Studies in Patients With Early Stage Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: The aim of this study was to perform facial and dorsal sural nerve conduction in early stage diabetic patients with electrophysiological methods to determine the severity and the frequency of affection of cranial and distal nerve conductions.Results: The mean distal latency of the dorsal sural nerve response was 2.9 ± 0.4 ms (range 1.79- 3.7), the mean amplitude was 8.3 ±3.15 (range 4.1-17.0) and the mean SCV was 32.9 ±3.8 (range 26-40) in our diabetic patients. In control subjects, facial nerve distal motor latency was 2.4± 0.2 ms with a range of 1.8-2.9 ms, and was 2.8± 0.3 ms with a range of 2.2-3.6 ms in the diabetics. Facial nerve distal latency delay was more significant than the dorsal sural nerve latency in the diabetic patients (p <0.001, p <0.01, respectively). Decrement of the dorsal sural amplitudes was significant than decrement of the facial nerve amplitudes in the diabetic patients (p < 0.01, p= 0.8).Conclusions: The evaluation of dorsal sural nerve conduction and facial nerve distal latency may improve the diagnostic yield and it should therefore be included in the routine evaluation of patients with normal nerve conduction studies in diabetic patients.