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A lot of Diabetic patients actually have C.I.D.P. What Are Peripheral Nerves?
Peripheral nerves are like electric wires. They connect the spinal
cord to the muscles and sensory organs in the skin
.
Types Of Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy can be classified as
generalized symmetric polyneuropathies (acute sensory, chronic
sensorimotor, or autonomic) and focal and multifocal neuropathies
(cranial, truncal, focal limb, proximal motor [amyotrophy], or
coexisting chronic inflammatory demylinating polyneuropathy [CIDP]).
Treatable neuropathies, including CIDP, monoclonal gammopathy, and
vitamin B12 deficiency, should be excluded.
Polyneuropathy: Is the commonest type of diabetic
neuropathy. The feet get involved first. When the neuropathy
progresses then symptoms ascend from the toes to foot and
gradually further to the knees. Later the hands may get
involved. The symptoms of neuropathy are always worse at
night. The commonest symptom is numbness.
A common feature of Polyneuropathy is coldness of the feet.
Burning sensation in the feet.
Another symptom is excessive sensitivity of the feet to touch.
Patients usually notice this at night when they find that the touch
and pressure of the bedclothes on their feet is unpleasant.
At times there is discoloration of the feet such that is red or paler than normal.
When severe, neuropathy will damage the sensory nerve fibers that
tell the patient where their feet are and so they become unsteady
when walking. This is worsened by weakness of the muscles in
legs and feet due to damaged nerve fibers .
Patients may think that the problems are being caused by the blood
vessels having problems.
Diabetic autonomic neuropathy: There is excessive
sweating of the face brought on by eating. There may be erectile
dysfunction. The patients may have swelling of the feet or legs and
they may tend to pass out when getting out of the bed or after
urination.
Which Diabetics Get Neuropathy?
Any one with or without insulin dependence may develop diabetic
Polyneuropathy.
Tests For Neuropathy
When a doctor wants to confirm the diagnosis of neuropathy he will
either arrange for the patient to be seen by a neurologist and/or
request an EMG test. In the EMG laboratory neuropathy is tested for
by applying small electrical shocks to the nerves and recording the
activity from muscles or from the same nerve some distance away.
Sometimes this test is accompanied by a fine needle being inserted
in one or more muscles.
What Can Be Done About Neuropathy?
Diabetic neuropathy should be evaluated to exclude
CIDP.
If the patient has a high protein level in the spinal fluid.
The EMG/NCV shows a neuropathy and the condition is progressive.
Then they may have CIDP.
CIDP is treated by IVIg. Please read the IVIg
page. IVIg will even get rid of the burning type of pain, the
numbness and help improve strength. Patients have even noted
that they needed less Insulin AFTER they started to use IVIg.
Recommended dose of IVIg is 2g/kg per month in divided doses.
 IgG
Other ways to treat diabetic neuropathy is to use a exercise
bicycle pedals as seen in our link pages.
Regular exercise will help control a lot of symptoms.
Contact us for any help you need in getting
treatment.
Iron
Will Trounces Neuropathic Pain
Statistics show that only .007363 percent of all Americans can
complete the Triathlon. Even more remarkable, on
November 5, 2005, she finished the grueling Ironman Florida
Triathlon just two years after being diagnosed with Parsonage-Turner
syndrome, a rare type of neuropathy that causes crippling muscular
pain.
You can get better too! Act fast get the treatment that can HELP
YOU.
Diabetes drug
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Sex Benefits
CIDP
Below is a study done which
documents what we are talking about:
Diabetic Neuropathy and demyelinating polyneuropathy successfully
treated with intravenous immunoglobulin
Intravenous immunoglobulin successfully treated patients with
diabetes-related chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy
(DM-CIDP), according to authors of a report in the Archives of
Neurology.
Evidence is growing that diabetes-associated CIDP shares many
features with idiopathic CIDP. One of the standard therapies for
idiopathic CIDP is intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). Therefore, K.R.
Sharma and colleagues at the University of Miami School of Medicine
treated DM-CIDP patients with IVIg to determine its efficacy.
In this prospective nonblinded trial, 25 patients, age 40 to 80
years (average 64 years), with type 2 diabetes and neuropathy that
met the diagnostic criteria for CIDP, and 1 patient without
diabetes, received daily IVIg (400 mg/kg body weight) for 5 days. A
Neuropathy Impairment Score was obtained for each patient at
baseline and again 4 weeks after the start of therapy.
A significant decrease from baseline in Neuropathy Impairment
Score occurred by the 4-week follow-up (61.5 at baseline vs. 33.0 at
4 weeks; p<0.001), indicating substantial improvement in the
condition of 21 of the 26 patients (Diabetic demyelinating
polyneuropathy responsive to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy.
Archives of Neurology, 2002;59(5):751-757).
Patients who experienced conduction block were significantly more
likely to show an improvement in Neuropathy Impairment Score: all 11
of the 11 patients who experienced conduction block showed an
improvement the score, while only 10 of the 15 patients who did not
have conduction block demonstrated improvement (p=0.03).
Treatment side effects were relatively minor and included
reversible kidney dysfunction (3 cases), flu symptoms (5 cases),
headache (5 cases), and chest pain with shortness of breath (1
case).
Sharma and colleagues concluded, "Although IVIg therapy seemed to
improve DM-CIDP in this uncontrolled trial, a controlled trial is
required for confirmation of our findings."
The corresponding author for this study is K.R. Sharma,
University of Miami School of Medicine M740, Department of
Neurology,
Key points reported in this study include:
* Patients with diabetes-associated chronic inflammatory
demyelinating polyneuropathy (DM-CIDP) improved significantly after
treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg)
* Improvement in Neuropathy Impairment Score was significantly
more likely for patients who experienced conduction block
* Side effects of IVIg treatment included flu-like symptoms,
headache, reversible renal dysfunction, and chest pain This article
was prepared by Pain & Central Nervous System Week editors from
staff and other reports
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We have seen
patients go from wheelchair to walking with our treatment protocols.
www.cidpusa.org
www.cidpusa.org/P/ivig.htm
http://www.cidpusa.org/disease.html
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