[Contribution of motor nerve conduction velocity and Hoffmann reflex in early detection of neuropathy in diabetics. Results and correlations with duration and other long-term complications in 117 patients (author's transl)].

Motor nerve conduction velocity and H. reflex parameters were studied in 85 insulin-treated diabetics classified in groups I to VI, according to the duration of the disease, in 32 maturity-onset diabetics (groupe V) and in 92 healthy control subjects. Each diabetic subject was examined prior to testing for clinical evidence of neuropathy and also had funduscopic examination, fluorescein angiography and an estimation of renal status by serum creatinine measurement and proteinuria. Electrical parameters were significantly different in all groups of diabetics from results in the control group. Neuropathy, as judged by these electrical studies, was frequently present in the absence of clinical expression, worsened with the duration of the disease in groups I to IV and preceeded other degenerative changes of diabetes. H. reflex parameters are an earlier index of neuropathy than motor nerve conduction velocity and may be used as a monitor of diabetic neuropathy.