Lower Visceral Fat Area in Patients with Type 2 Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

Abstract

Objective

There is preliminary evidence that visceral fat area (VFA) was associated with the presence of type 2 diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in the Korean population; however, no studies have reported the association in Chinese population. The purpose of this study was to explore the possible correlation of VFA with DPN in such a population.

Methods

A total of 2498 hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) undergone VFA measurement, and were divided into DPN group (n=900) and non-DPN group (n=1594). The association of VFA with the presence of DPN was evaluated by correlation and multiple logistic regression analyses, generalized additive model with a smooth curve fitting, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results

The VFA was significantly lower in the DPN group than in the non-DPN group (P < 0.001). VFA was significantly and positively associated with sural nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and amplitude potential (SNAP) and negatively associated with the presence of DPN (all P< 0.001); there was no significant difference in the curve fitting (P = 0.344). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of presence of DPN decreased progressively across the VFA quartiles (P for trend < 0.001) and was significantly lower in patients in the highest VFA quartile than in those in the lowest quartile (OR: 0.382, 95% CI 0.151–0.968, P< 0.001) after multivariate adjustment. The ROC analysis revealed that the best cut-off value of VFA for predicting the presence of DPN was 50.5cm² (sensitivity 84.40%; specificity 34.00%).

Conclusion

These results suggest that lower VFA level may be associated with increased risk of the presence of DPN in T2DM patients.

Keywords:

• visceral fat area
• diabetic peripheral neuropathy
• sural nerve conduction velocity
• sural nerve amplitude potential
• Chinese population

Data Sharing Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

The study was performed in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki and was reviewed and approved by was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University (No. 2018017). The patients provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Consent for Publication

All authors gave final approval of the version to be published and agreed to be listed as authors.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the colleagues in clinical laboratory center and endocrine laboratory, and all the nurses in our department for their hard work and valuable assistance with this study.

Author Contributions

All the authors contributed significantly to the manuscript. YRW conducted the population study, analyzed and interpreted the data, and drafted the manuscript. PJY significantly revised the draft, interpreted the data, and involved in data analyses. JL, KL, QW, and YX conducted the study, collected the information and participated in data interpretation. ZHZ, QT, YM, and PC involved in the sample test, data management and draft revision. PJY is the PI of project, who designed the study and critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the grants from the Ministry Science and Technology of China (2016YFC0901200, 2016YFC0901205), research grants from Luzhou Science and Technology Bureau [2013-S-48 (22/30))] and Health Commission of Luzhou City (18173).