Spontaneous diabetes mellitus in a rhesus monkey: neurophysiological studies.

Peripheral neuropathy is a common complication of human diabetes, but its occurrence in spontaneously diabetic monkeys is unknown. Four months after developing diabetes, a 22-year-old female rhesus monkey had nerve conduction studies which were compared with control data obtained from 9 nondiabetic rhesus monkeys. In the diabetic monkey, median and ulnar sensory action potential amplitudes and the median motor distal latency differed from controls by more than two standard deviations. Conduction velocities in the diabetic monkey were less than the mean values in controls, although none were beyond two standard deviations of control means. These electrophysiologic abnormalities are similar to those described in human diabetes and suggest that the spontaneously diabetic monkey peripheral nervous system may be a suitable model of experimental diabetic neuropathy.