The Association of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy and Pulmonary Function Tests

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a systemic disease with complications in cardiovascular system, nerves, eyes and kidneys. The potential targeting of the lung as an organ in diabetes is suggested by the rich pulmonary microvascular circulation and ample connective tissue present. This study was conducted for assessment of association between pulmonary function tests and diabetic peripheral neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: One hundred patients were included in the study. Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) was used to evaluate diabetic peripheral neuropathy in all patients. Based on the results of MNSI, patients divided to two groups; 50 diabetic subjects without neuropathy and 50 subjects with neuropathy. Also, flow sensitive spirometer was used to evaluate pulmonary function test (PFT) for all subjects were. All the pulmonary function parameters were measured as a percentage of predicted value. In addition, according to HBA1c level, patients were divided to three groups (Group-1 =<7%, Group-2 =7%-9%, Group-3 =>9%). Result: We did not observe a significant difference between the two groups with and without diabetic neuropathy in terms of pulmonary function tests, but in subject with diabetic peripheral neuropathy a significant reduction of FVC and FEV1 was observed in group 3 (HBA1C>9  ) as compared to groups 1 (HBA1C<7). Conclusion: This study does not show significant reduction in pulmonary function in patients with type-2 DM with neuropathy as compared without neuropathy. But there were significant difference in FVC, FEV1 and FEF25-75 based on HBA1C level in subjects with neuropathy.

The Association of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy and Pulmonary Function Tests Keywords:

Pulmonary function , Type 2 diabetes , Diabetic peripheral neuropathy