Neuropathy and mortality in diabetes: Influence of pancreas transplantation

✍ Scribed by Xavier Navarro; William R. Kennedy; Dorothee Aeppli; David E. R. Sutherland

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 790 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-639X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-4598(199608)19:8<1009::aid-mus9>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

We collected information on patient status and cause of death for 545 insulindependent diabetic subjects who had cardiorespiratory reflex and nerve conduction tests performed to determine if presence and severity of autonomic and somatic neuropathy is associated with mortality and if a functioning pancreas transplantation (PTx) influences mortality. Follow-up was 12-1 38 months. Abnormal cardiorespiratory reflexes were present in 41 7 patients and there was abnormal nerve conduction in 392 patients. Mortality rates for patients with abnormal tests were higher ( P < 0.0001) than for patients with normal tests. A total neuropathy score that included cardiorespiratory and nerve conduction test scores predicted survival better than separate scores. Patients with moderate neuropathy, but not those with severe neuropathy, who retained a functioning PTx, had longer survival times than patients whose PTx failed in the first 3 months. Considering only patients transplanted after 1985, those with moderate neuropathy who retained a functioning PTx had even longer survival times than nontransplanted patients.