[Evaluation of the functional state of the peripheral motor neuron apparatus in patients with diabetes mellitus].

As many as 84 patients suffering from diabetes mellitus with and without clinical manifestations of diabetic neuropathy (DN) underwent clinical and electromyographic examinations. The patients with clinical manifestations of DN showed a decrease of the rate of wave spreading in the distal and proximal parts of lower limb nerves, an increase of the proximal distal gradient, a decline of the amplitude of the maximal M-response, an increase of the latent period or the lack of H-reflex. The data point to generalized impairment of the peripheral neuromotor apparatus with primary involvement into the process of the distal parts of limb nerves. In the majority of the patients without clinical manifestations of DN, electromyography also demonstrated injury to the peripheral nerves, evidence of a possibility of electromyographic diagnosis of the subclinical stage of DN.