Research on non-invasive measurement for the early diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Various complications cause the main damage of diabetic mellitus (DM). Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is one of the most common syndromes of the DM. Based on the clinic requirement, we develop a new instrument and do research on non-invasive measurement for the early diagnosis of the DPN by nerve conduction studies. Our work is consisted of two parts: (1) combining the virtual instrument technology with single chip microcomputer (SCM) module to make an instrument for non-invasive measurement; (2) doing clinic tests to find the quantitative indices of nerve electrophysiological characters for the early diagnosis of DPN by statistics. The prototype instrument is composed of two parts: SCM module and PC. The weak nerve conduction signals in company with strong noise are processed and recognized by signal averaging and cross correlation. The operating software is designed by the virtual instrument workbench-LabVIEW. 60 DM patients were examined by the prototype instrument to collect the electrophysiological parameters. We concluded that the SCV of the sural nerve and the minimal F-wave latency of the fibular nerve have a higher degree of sensitivity in the early diagnosis of DPN by statistic. By the discriminative analysis, we find the consistency of some electrophysiological data with clinic criteria.