Title: Impact of Duration of Diabetes on Audio-Visual Reaction Time in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients
Authors: Payal Priya, Anshu Khatri, Sharad Kumar Saxena, Avni Bhushan Mowar
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v4i2.42
Reaction time is an indicator of processing of sensory stimulus by central nervous system and it’s execution in the form of motor response. It is found to be delayed in long standing type 2 Diabetes mellitus patients. Reaction time measurement is a simple, non invasive test which can be done in diabetic patients to detect the neuropathic changes earlier. Thereare paucity of studies showing the effect of duration of diabetes on reaction time. Keeping this in mind, present study was planned to compare the audio-visual reaction time of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients of different duration of diabetes with non-diabetic healthy subjects as well as to find the correlation of Auditory Reaction Time and Visual Reaction Time with duration of diabetes in diabetic subjects. Study consisted of ninety documented type 2 DM male patients in the age group of 41-70 years with history of diabetes upto 10 years and who were on oral hypoglycaemic drugs as cases. Cases were divided in three groups on the basis of duration of diabetes (upto 2 years, > 2-5 years and > 5-10 years). Ninetyage matched healthy males were taken as controls. Reaction time was compared between cases and controls according to the duration of diabetes as well as correlation of Audio-visual reaction time with duration of diabetes was done. Present study showedthat Audio-visual reaction time were delayed in patients suffering from diabetes for more than 5 years duration. Along with that significant positive correlation was found between audio-visual reaction time and duration of diabetes in diabetic males. Thus it is concluded that Diabetics have prolonged Audio-visual reaction time. Delayed reaction time in diabetics without symptoms of clinical neuropathy is a sensitive indicator of early nerve damage. Thus, reaction time being a simple, non-invasive, low cost tool might be included in the routine examination of all the patients suffering from type 2 diabetes mellitus. Key words: Neuropathy, Nerve conduction, Cognitive functions, Hyperglycemia, Free radicals, Axonal degeneration.
Abstract
