THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SEVERITY OF DIABETIC NEUROPATIC WITH COGNITIVE FUNCTION DISORDERS IN PATIENTS DM

Abstract

Background: Diabetic neuropathy and impaired cognitive function are complications that often occur in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). both of these complication have pathophysiology mechanism which is almost the same. This study was to determine the correlation between the severity of diabetic neuropathy and impaired cognitive function in DM patients.

Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design in patients with diabetic neuropathy in the Endocrine Polyclinic and Neurology Polyclinic at Haji Adam Malik Hospital Medan, assessment of diabetic neuropathy was performed by anamnesa , neurological examination and nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and categorized as mild, moderate, severe. Furthermore, a cognitive function examination was performed using Montreal Cognitive Assessment - INA (MoCA-INA) ,Verbal fluency test , Trail Making Test A (TMT-A) and Trail Making Test B (TMT-B) . To analyze the correlation between the severity of diabetic neuropathy and cognitive function, fisher exact test was used.

Results: This study involved 31 patient subjects DM who suffer from diabetic neuropathy with The history of suffering DM had a median value of 4 (1-15) years, HbA1c of subjects had a median value of 8 (7-11.20). From the statistical analysis, it was found that there was a significant correlation between the severity of diabetic neuropathy with the four cognitive examination tools , MoCA INA with p <0.001, TMT-A with p <0.023, TMTB with p <0.38 and VFT with p <0.014 .

Conclusion: There is a significant correlation between the severity of diabetic neuropathy and impaired cognitive function in DM patients.