A comparative evaluation of blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin in clinically manifested diabetic neuropathy

Abstract

Background: It is very well established that tight control of diabetes reduces if not prevents the risk of neuropathy. The benefit of other mode of therapy like myo- inositol supplementation and aldose reductase inhibitors remain to be established. Objective of present study to compare blood sugar and glycosylated hemoglobin in clinically manifested diabetic neuropathy.Methods: Hospital based cross sectional study was carried out at Department of General Medicine, from August 2016 to October 2017 among 60 patients of diabetic neuropathy. These patients were subjected thorough evaluation as per the proforma.Results: As per the blood sugar levels, 15% were normal. As per glycosylated hemoglobin levels, only one patient was found to be normal. Thus, glycosylated hemoglobin showed evidence of poor control more frequently than blood sugar estimation in these patients. Patients with both retinopathy and neuropathy in this study had diabetes mellitus for periods 2 months to 20 years. (Mean 8.2yrs). Thus, it can be seen that glycosylated hemoglobin is a more sensitive indicator of poor control of diabetes mellitus than blood sugar. This difference is statistically significant (P <0.05).Conclusions: Thus, as an integral of diabetic control, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1C) estimation is superior to the conventional measures in assessment of control.