Background: Diabetes is a complex, chronic condition that is a severe public health concern of the modern world. A wide range of co-morbidities and microvascular complications are associated with diabetes and one such major microvascular condition of diabetes that, if left untreated, leads to long-term disability among patients is Diabetic neuropathy. The primary goal of this study is to assess the tactile discriminatory function in patients with Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus and compare it with patients who do not have type-2 diabetes mellitus.
Methods: This case-control study, conducted at a tertiary rural healthcare centre, used a cross-sectional design. 53 individuals with a verified diagnosis of type-2 diabetes were included in the case group based on non-randomized sampling. These were contrasted with patients in the control group who did not have diabetes who were age and sex matched. The participants' tactile discrimination ability was measured using a millimetre-marked compass aesthesiometer. The tips of the index fingers on both the right and left hands, the palmar surfaces of the palms on the hands, the ventral surface of the forearms on the right and left, the plantar surfaces of the big toes on both the right and left foot, and the plantar surfaces of the soles on both the right and left foot were used as the testing sites. Data showing the two-point discrimination thresholds of the case and control groups were compared and tabulated.
Results: The unpaired t-test was done using all the values of two-point discriminatory thresholds in the diabetic and non-diabetic groups at 10 different sites at the upper and lower limbs as mentioned previously. The t values for all the test sites were significant with p values < 0.05. This indicates that the tactile discriminatory thresholds at all the testing sites, differ significantly in diabetic and non-diabetic groups. The current study also aimed to demonstrate a statistically significant association between the duration of diabetes and the reduced sensory abilities of diabetic patients. The Pearson's correlation Test was used to achieve this, but the results were unsatisfactory and somewhat at odds with the findings of several earlier investigations, which had discovered a strong positive link with the duration of diabetes with that of increased values of tactile discriminatory thresholds of the diabetic group. Since the correlation coefficients were not significant, it was not possible to determine a meaningful relationship between the duration of diabetes and the diabetic case group's reduced sensory abilities.
Conclusion: Our study highlights how the two-point discrimination test can aid in the early detection of tactile sensation loss in diabetic patients. The two-point discriminatory thresholds between the diabetic and non-diabetic groups differ significantly, according to the results of the study. Additionally, the data indicates higher threshold values, which point to a marked decline in tactile function in the diabetic group.
diabetes, tactile discrimination, sensory, assessment, control
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