Cyprian Popescu*, Mohamed Chahine Chekkour, Elena Popescu
Purpose: To address if there is an increased frequency of abnormal Electrochemical Skin Conductance (ESC) findings in patients with paresthesia, we performed a prospective observational study.
Methods and Results: 199 consecutive diabetic Algerian patients were evaluated by sudoscan. 12 patients with T1DM (31% of all with T1DM), 50 with T2DM (43%), and 26 with T2DMI (60%) have abnormal ESC. After multivariable adjustment for potential confounders, analysis of patients with ESC abnormalities showed that women with paresthesia have more Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (DPN). Therefore, the diagnostic efficacy of the sudoscan in women is particularly good (AUC: 85.1%), much better than for men (AUC: 69.97%). Overall, the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve for sudoscan at 71.9% indicates a poor discriminant between asymptomatic and patients with paresthesia.
Conclusion: Sudoscan procedure, which allow a noninvasively assessment of risk of DPN was reliable only in the female patients. The ESC is lower in the group with insulin treatment related to the longer disease duration. The paresthesia group has a worse glycemic control than asymptomatic patients.