Abstract
Aim
This study assessed the association between symptoms of bilateral numbness and/or paresthesia in the feet and postural instability in Japanese patients with diabetes.
Methods
This cross-sectional study included 303 patients with diabetes, aged 40–88 years, who were referred to an outpatient diabetic clinic between January and July 2013 at Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital. A posturography test was used to evaluate postural sway in patients. Indices of postural sway were the total length and the enveloped area. Analysis of covariance was used to estimate the multivariable-adjusted means of indices of postural sway according to the presence or absence of symptoms of bilateral numbness and/or paresthesia in the feet.
Results
Of 303 patients, 35 (11.6 %) had symptoms of bilateral numbness and/or paresthesia in the feet. After adjustment for age, sex, diabetic retinopathy, regular exercise, body mass index, hemoglobin A1c level, and quadriceps’ strength, patients with symptoms had higher levels of postural sway length and an enveloped area in the posturography test than those without symptoms. In addition, we observed similar results when we analyzed 234 patients aged ≥60 years.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that patients who had symptoms of bilateral numbness and/or paresthesia in the feet may have more postural instability than those without symptoms.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Fund for Care Prevention from NPO Biwako Health and Welfare Consortium and Shiga Prefecture. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) (grant no. 25862144). The authors sincerely thank the researchers and medical staff at Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital for their examinations.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human rights statement and informed consent
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (Shiga University of Medical Science, an Ethical Committee) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later revisions. Informed consent was obtained from all patients included in the study.
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Morimoto, A., Sonoda, N., Ugi, S. et al. Association between symptoms of bilateral numbness and/or paresthesia in the feet and postural instability in Japanese patients with diabetes. Diabetol Int 7, 69–76 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13340-015-0214-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13340-015-0214-2