Diabetes complications and comorbidities: Neuropathy

People with diabetes have a higher incidence of lower extremity amputation than those without, and individuals with type 1 diabetes have a particularly high risk, research suggests.

Two population-based studies published in Diabetes Care suggest that more than one in 10 people with long-term type 1 diabetes have diabetic peripheral neuropathy, with socioeconomic factors playing an important role in the risk for its development.

Optimal glycemic control during the first years after a latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood diagnosis could prevent people’s microvascular complication risk from equaling that seen in those with type 2 diabetes, shows an analysis of the UKPDS.

Severely obese people show evidence of impaired cognition even when they have no signs of prediabetes or diabetes, but retinopathy and nephropathy only occur in those with hyperglycemia, US research shows.

Danish researchers monitoring hundreds of patients with type 2 diabetes for more than a decade say they have been unable to find clear support for the widely argued “one-way street” hypothesis of how nerve damage progresses in diabetic polyneuropathy.

Short-term structured strength and balance training does not improve quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes-related peripheral neuropathy, but may increase functional status and balance confidence, research shows.

Researchers have identified factors that predict repeated very low blood sugar among adults with type 1 diabetes who have suboptimal awareness of hypoglycemia.

Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy is reversible in people with type 2 diabetes, report Korean researchers who found that age was the most important predictor of recovery.

The presence of microvascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes signals a high risk for heart failure, report the EMPA-REG OUTCOME investigators.

All-cause mortality risk in patients with type 1 diabetes and more than one microvascular complication does not exceed the combined risk estimates of each separate complication, Danish researchers report.

A registry study in The BMJ finds a small but significant increased risk for amputations in patients with type 2 diabetes using sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors.

Patients with type 1 diabetes may develop multiple complications even before they reach adulthood, shows an analysis of the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study.

Patients with diabetes who are at high risk for foot ulceration are more likely to die than to require amputation, report researchers.

Obese patients with type 2 diabetes who undergo bariatric surgery achieve large reductions in their risk for microvascular complications, shows a real-world study.

A study of patients from US administrative claims databases finds no evidence that use of canagliflozin increases the risk for below the knee amputation when compared with other sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors or with other antidiabetic medications.

Older patients with type 2 diabetes and those with markers of obesity have an increased risk for diabetic polyneuropathy, results of a longitudinal study suggest.

Arterial disease and neuropathy, along with poor vision and reduced kidney function, are associated with a significantly increased risk for lower limb amputation in men with diabetes, US researchers report.

Patients with painful diabetic polyneuropathy continue to experience pain relief in the lower extremities for at least 5 years of spinal cord stimulation, suggest study findings.

Researchers have identified modifiable risk factors that if targeted early could help prevent the debilitating consequences of diabetic peripheral neuropathy in young people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Here we provide an overview of the seven Cochrane reviews published in June that covered topics relating to diabetes, including glycemic control for prevention of renal failure, phototherapy for foot ulcers, and anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment for diabetic macular edema.