Diabetic neuropathy

Abstract

Neuropathy is the most common and earliest to occur among a variety of vascular complications of diabetes. In contrast to its popularity, it seems that attention has not been sufficiently paid to this complication. This may have been ascribed to the difficulty in understanding of the pathophysiology of neuropathy or lack of effective treatment regimen due in part to the complicated etiology. Nevertheless, there are slow but steady advances in clinical management of diabetic neuropathy involving the proposal of diagnostic criteria or clinical staging of neuropathy for an early detection of nerve deficits and direction of the treatment. Emergence of pain-relieving agents has also contributed to the improvement of quality of life in patients with symptomatic neuropathy. Notwithstanding, there still needs clarification of the pathogenesis for the development of diabetic neuropathy, clinical indices for nerve deficits, and for the prediction of prognosis. In this communication, recent progress in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy will be summarized and its underlying pathology will be introduced.