Abstract
Diabetic neuropathy has been described in the diabetes associated with chronic pancreatitis, but the frequency and clinical features are not yet clear. This report utilizes data from our records in an attempt to shed more light on this problem.
Clinically, diabetic peripheral neuropathy occurred in 13 cases out of 39 diabetic patients with calcifying pancreatitis and in 28 cases out of 59 primary diabetics. Painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy was observed in 5 of the patients with pancreatic diabetes. The calcifying pancreatitis was diagnosed simultaneously with or prior to the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus in 2 out of the 13 cases of calcifying pancreatitis with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and the other cases were diagnosed after the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. All the pancreatic diabetics with diabetic peripheral neuropathy were on insulin therapy, and these patients had no family hisotry of diabetes.
Although the diabetic peripheral neuropathy in the patients with primary diabetes revealed no significant correlation with the duration of diabetes, there was a significant correlation with the duration of diabetes in the patients with pancreatic diabetes. On the other hand, the diabetic peripheral neuropathy was seen in moderate and severe diabetes in patients with pancreatic diabetes, whereas the degree of diabetes did not appear to have a favorable influence on the occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy in patients with primary diabetes.
These data suggest that a different etiology may exist between the occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy in pancreatic diabetes and in primary diabetes. Also, primary and pancreatic diabetes mellitus cannot be differentiated with certainty on the basis of whether or not diabetic peripheral neuropathy is present.
