Prevalence of Cardiovascular Autonomic Neuropathy Among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Abstract

Background: Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is one of the chronic complications of diabetes mellitus with potentially dangerous consequences. Although it is very common, it is one of the most underdiagnosed and often overlooked conditions. Aim: To study the prevalence of cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) among type 2 diabetes patients using non-invasive bedside tests. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of 93 type 2 diabetic patients was performed at our institute over a 12-month period.  Detailed medical history was obtained from all patients, including duration of diabetes, symptoms related to autonomic neuropathy, etc. Relevant blood tests were also performed as deemed necessary. A series of five autonomic function tests were performed in all patients using a sphygmomanometer and ECG recordings as described by Ewing et al, and the cardiac autonomic dysfunction score was calculated. GNU PSPP statistics software was used for statistical analysis. Prevalence of CAN was calculated. Chisquare test was used for categorical variables and p value 0f 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Among 93 patients in study group 24 had an abnormal CAN score and 39 had borderline values. Prevalence of CAN was 67.7% in our study group. Chi square tests showed significant relation between duration of diabetes and CAN scores with a p value of <0.001. Conclusion: Prevalence of CAN among type 2 diabetics is fairly high, which was 67.7% in our study group. There is a significant relation between prevalence of CAN and duration of diabetes.

Keywords: CAN, autonomic neuropathy, diabetes, coronary artery disease