Abstract
To determine the influence of changes in blood glucose levels on the improvement of diabetic neuropathy, tibial nerve conduction velocity (NCV) was measured in 96 NIDDM patients on the 5th and 12th day after hospitalization. NCV was found to improve after a week with diet and exercise alone. On the whole, however, the improvement was not remarkable. The decrement of fasting plasma glucose (ΔFPG) was not related to the degree of NCV improvement (ΔNCV). This suggested that a certain level of blood glucose control was necessary before improvement in neuropathy occurred. Therefore, the patients were classified into 3 groups according to whether the fasting plasma glucose level (FPG) recorded on the 2nd and 12th day after hospitalization was more or less than 150 mg/dl. Significant improvement was seen in the group whose FPG was over 150 mg/dl on the 2nd day and less than 150 mg/dl on the 12th Day. In contrast, an unchanged or worsening tendency was seen in the group whose FPG remained over 150 mg/d/ on the 12th day after hospitalization. From the above results, it was concluded that when NCV is evaluated in diabetics, the metabolic status should also be considered, because NCV can rapidly improve even under the influence of diet and exercise alone. However, such functional improvement is dependant on the FPG being controlled to less than approximately 150 mg/dl.
