A Study on the Correlation between Pain Intensity and HbA1c for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Patients

Se Ho Jung; Hee Jin Sung; Su Ji Lim; Cham Kyul Lee; Na Young Jo; Jeong Du Roh; Eun Yong Lee

doi:10.13045/acupunct.2015058

J Acupunct Res > Volume 32(4); 2015 > Article

Jung, Sung, Lim, Lee, Jo, Roh, and Lee: A Study on the Correlation between Pain Intensity and HbA1c for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Patients※

Original Article

Acupuncture 2015; 32(4): 17-27.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13045/acupunct.2015058

A Study on the Correlation between Pain Intensity and HbA1c for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Patients^※

Se Ho Jung¹, Hee Jin Sung¹, Su Ji Lim¹, Cham Kyul Lee¹, Na Young Jo², Jeong Du Roh², Eun Yong Lee^1,^*

¹Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, Chungju Hospital of Traditional Korean Medicine, Semyung University

²Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, Jecheon Hospital of Traditional Korean Medicine, Semyung University

^*Corresponding author : Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion Medicine, Chungju Hospital of Traditional Korean Medicine, Semyung University, 63, Sangbang 4-gil, Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do 27429, Republic of Korea, Tel : +82-43-841-1735, E-mail : acupley@semyung.ac.kr

^※ This study was supported by Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine.

Received October 13, 2015 Revised November 30, 2015 Accepted December 07, 2015

See the Original "".

Abstract

Objectives:

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the correlation between HbA1c and pain intensity in diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients, and to compare the difference between two groups divided by the risk of complications.

Methods:

The participants were 46 men and women suffering from neuropathic pain diagnosed with diabetes mellitus who visited the Hospital of Traditional Korean Medicine, Semyung University from June, 2014 to August 2015. Age, duration of diabetes mellitus, numeric rating scale(NRS), and Michigan neuropathy screening instrument(MNSI) were used as evaluation tools.

Results:

In all 46 cases, there were no significant correlations between HbA1c and age, duration of diabetes mellitus, NRS, MNSIQ, or MNSIE.
Among 23 cases with a high risk of complications (more than 7.0 % of HbA1c, group A), there were no significant correlations between HbA1c and age, duration of diabetes mellitus, NRS, MNSIQ, or MNSIE.
Among 23 cases with a low risk of complications(less than 7.0 % of HbA1c, group B), there were no significant correlations between HbA1c and age, duration of diabetes mellitus, NRS, MNSIQ, or MNSIE.
Means of duration of diabetes mellitus, NRS, MNSIQ, and MNSIE were higher in group A than group B, but there were no significant correlations in statistics.

Conclusions:

This study could not find statistically significant correlations between pain intensity and HbA1c in diabetic peripheral neuropathy patients, so more studies are required in the future.

Key Words: Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy; Correlation; NRS; MNSI; HbA1c.

Fig. 1

10g Monofilament Test

Table 1

General Characteristics

	N^*	Age	Duration of Diabetes Mellitus(year)
Male	26	63.35±9.88	11.37±9.43
Female	20	62.55±7.12	11.85±8.89
Total	46	63.00±8.71	11.58±9.10

^* Number of patients

Table 2

HbA1c Distribution in Patients with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

	N^*	HbA1c(%)
High risk of complications (more than 7.0 % of HbA1c, group A)	23	9.18±1.78
Low risk of complications (less than 7.0 % of HbA1c, group B)	23	6.30±0.32
Total	46	7.74±1.93

^* Number of patients

Table 3

Correlations of HbA1c with Age

	Age	Total	Group A	Group B
HbA1c	Pearson correlation	−0.180	−0.009	−0.124
	p-value	0.231	0.968	0.573
	N^*	46	23	23

^* Number of patients

Table 4

Correlations of HbA1c with Duration of Diabetes Mellitus

	Duration of Diabetes Mellitus	Total	Group A	Group B
HbA1c	Pearson correlation	0.234	0.049	0.358
	p-value	0.118	0.823	0.094
	N^*	46	23	23

^* Number of patients

Table 5

Correlations of HbA1c with NRS

	NRS	Total	Group A	Group B
HbA1c	Pearson correlation	0.036	0.037	−0.029
	p-value	0.814	0.868	0.896
	N^*	46	23	23

^* Number of patients

Table 6

Correlations of HbA1c with MNSIQ

	MNSIQ	Total	Group A	Group B
HbA1c	Pearson correlation	0.167	0.092	−0.098
	p-value	0.266	0.678	0.657
	N^*	46	23	23

^* Number of patients

Table 7

Correlations of HbA1c with MNSIE

	MNSIE	Total	Group A	Group B
HbA1c	Pearson correlation	0.018	−0.285	−0.230
	p-value	0.908	0.188	0.291
	N^*	46	23	23

^* Number of patients

Table 8

Comparison on Age, Duration of Diabetes Mellitus, NRS, MNSIQ, MNSIE between Group A and Group B

	Group A	Group B	p-value
Age	61.09±10.38	64.91 ±6.30	0.140
Duration of Diabetes Mellitus(year)	13.79±10.24	9.37±7.38	0.101
NRS	6.04±1.49	5.96±1.58	0.849
MNSIQ	5.00±1.45	4.39±1.83	0.217
MNSIE	2.91 ±0.85	2.57±0.59	0.114

VI.

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