Correlation between hemoglobin glycosylation index and nerve conduction velocity in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between hemoglobin glycation variation index (HGI) and peripheral nerve conduction velocity (NCV) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, including 324 patients with T2DM were included in this study. Basic information and blood indicators were collected. The motor conduction velocities (MCV) of the bilateral ulnar nerve, median nerve, and common peroneal nerve, and the sensory conduction velocities (SCV) of the ulnar nerve, median nerve, and superficial peroneal nerve were measured. The patients were divided into two groups according to the NCV: normal nerve conduction group (NCVN group) and abnormal nerve conduction group (NCVA group). When the NCV is less than the specific normal value, the patients were divided into the NCVA group. HGI was calculated as the difference between the measured and predicted values of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) using the linear relationship between HbA1c level and fasting plasma glucose levels. At last, all study participants were divided into High HGI and Low HGI groups using the median of HGI as the boundary. The study also analyzed the correlation between HGI and NCV. Results: Compared to the NCVN group, the HGI levels of the NCVA group were higher (P < 0.001). The prevalence of NCVA in the high HGI group was higher than that in the low HGI group (P = 0.004). HGI was negatively correlated with bilateral ulnar nerve MCV, bilateral median nerve MCV, bilateral common peroneal nerve MCV, bilateral median nerve SCV and left superficial peroneal nerve SCV, and the correlation still existed after adjusting for confounding factors. Conclusion: This study found that HGI is inversely associated with NCV in patients with T2DM, and this correlation is higher between HGI and MCV of peripheral nerve.