Complaints of neuropathy related to the clinical and neurophysiological assessment of nerve function in patients with diabetes mellitus.

To determine the value of a detailed evaluation of neuropathic sensory complaints in assessing diabetic polyneuropathy, a questionnaire listing different sensory symptoms was compared with a clinical and neurophysiological examination of the peripheral nerves. Thirty-seven insulin dependent and thirty-one non-insulin dependent diabetic patients who were consecutively referred because of suspected polyneuropathy were investigated. In all patients both clinical and neurophysiological examination confirmed the diagnosis of polyneuropathy. Only the scores of the clinical examination were significantly correlated with the scores of the sensory symptoms (r = 0.31, P < 0.01). Using a factor analysis, a dimension of complaints of sensory alteration could be distinguished from a dimension of complaints of neuropathic pain (alpha coefficients 0.88 and 0.86, respectively). Tingling sensations turned out to be an expression of the dimension of complaints of sensory alteration. The scores of clinical and neurophysiological examinations were only significantly correlated with the dimension of sensory alteration (r = 0.38, P < 0.002; r = 0.37, P < 0.02, respectively). We conclude that only symptoms of numbness and tingling sensations in hand and feet are associated with objectively assessed diabetic polyneuropathy.