Study Of Visceral Sensitivity Index In Diabetic Patients

Backgrounds and Objective:Diabetes is a severely hazardous disease to human’s health, with a high prevalence in the world. Diabetic gastrointestinal neuropathy (DGN) is one of the important chronic complications. The pathogenesis of DGN is complicated, which has not been fully elucidated. Visceral hypersensitivity plays an important role in gastrointestinal discomfort, and is considered as one of the pathogenesis of DGN. Visceral sensitivity index (VSI) in irritable bowel syndrome and other gastrointestinal diseases, is used as an effective tool to evaluate patients’gastrointestinal sensitivity. However, study on VSI in diabetes has not been reported, therefore we survey the VSI in diabetic patients, in order to find the changes of intestinal sensitivity in diabetes.Methods:305type2diabetic patients with duration more than5years were recruited from Suzhou Jiulong Hospital, Zhangjiagang People’s Hospital, Taicang People’s Hospital and Shanghai Fengxian Hospital. The basic information of the patients was recorded. Biochemical parameters, such as fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlc), C peptide were measured. The VSI score and anxiety and depression score (HADS) were obtained by questionnaires. All the data collected was entered into SPSS software, followed by statistical analysis.Results:1. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects in terms of age, BMI, blood pressure, lipids, HbAlc, duration and insulin using, indicating good homogeneity; the proportion of smoking and alcohol assumption in male subjects were much higher than female; the cretinine level in male subjects were higher than those in female subjects.2. Compared with the normal population according to other reports, VSI score in patients with diabetes was significantly higher (P<0.01); there was no significant difference between male and female.3. VSI score showed an upward trend with the increasing of the duration and the decreasing of C-peptide level. VSI score significantly correlated with the duration of diabetes and C-peptide levels positively and negatively respectively (P<0.05), although the correlation coefficients were low.4. VSI score was higher in diabetic patients with anxiety or depression. HAS-positive diabetes had a much higher VSI score than HAS-negative ones (P<0.05), and the same to HDS.Conclusions:VSI score is significantly higher in diabetic patients, correlating with duration of diabetes and C peptide level. VSI score may be affected by anxiety and depression in diabetes. As an effective tool reflecting the sensitivity of intestine, VSI might be useful to detect diabetic gastrointestinal neuropathy.