Vitamin D deficiency in Diabetics with Neuropathy

Article: Complications
Does Vitamin D deficiency play a role in peripheral neuropathy in Type 2 diabetes?
D. Shehab  Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University

Abstract

Aim Despite recent reports linking vitamin D deficiency with increased risk of diabetes mellitus and complications, there is limited data on patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. We aimed to evaluate the incidence and associations of vitamin D deficiency in 210 patients with Type 2 diabetes with and without diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Results Eighty-seven patients had diabetic peripheral neuropathy and these patients had significantly longer duration of diabetes and higher HbA1c. Age, gender, incidence of retinopathy and coronary heart disease were not significantly different from those without neuropathy. Mean (SD) vitamin D was significantly lower in those with neuropathy [36.9 (39.9) nmol⁄l] compared with those without [58.32 (58.9) nmol⁄ l] and 81.5%of patients with neuropathy had vitamin D deficiency compared
with 60.4% of those without. Vitamin D showed significant (P < 0.05) correlations with total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and urine microalbumin : creatinine ratio. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that diabetic peripheral neuropathy was significantly associated with vitamin D deficiency (odds ratio = 3.47; 95% CI = 1.04–11.56, P = 0.043) after inclusion of
potential confounders such as duration of diabetes, HbA1c and LDL-cholesterol.


Conclusion Vitamin D deficiency is an independent risk factor for diabetic peripheral neuropathy, and further studies are required to confirm if Vitamin D supplementation could prevent or delay the onset.


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