Abstract

Objective: To validate the discriminative power of Vibration Perception Threshold (VPT) considering Nerve Conduction Studies (NCS) as gold standard in type 2 diabetes mellitus in the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Materials and Method: Thirty patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and thirty subjects who are age, sex and BMI matched normal controls were tested with Vibration Perception Threshold and Nerve Conduction Studies; mean ± SD of the characteristics were calculated. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for the Vibration Perception Threshold was calculated, considering Nerve Conduction Studies as gold standard. Results: The positive and negative predictive values were calculated to be 84% and 74.29% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of VPT was found to be70 % and 86.6% respectively. Conclusion: Vibration Perception threshold has shown positive correlation with NCS in the evaluation of peripheral neuropathy in diabetes. It may be a better screening tool due to simple procedure and cheaper in cost.

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