J Korean Neurol Assoc.  1999 May;17(3):389-393.

Title Delayed Central Conduction Time on Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential Pathway in Diabetic Patients: Functional Origin? Or Structural Origin?

• Kwon KH
• Lee BC
• Kim SM
• Um KY
• Bae JS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It has been well known that absolute and interpeak latencies of brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP) are usually prolonged in diabetics. However, Its etiology is still controversial. We tried to identify whether the cause is structural or metabolic in origin by performing BAEP and brain MRI in the diabetic patients.
METHODS
BAEP were performed in both the diabetic patients (DM) group (16 males and 15 females) and the normal control group (25 males and 33 female). A brain MRI was performed in the DM group on those who showed abnormal BAEP and com-pared the results of BAEP of the DM group with those of the control group.
RESULTS
7 patients (22.6%) showed abnor-mal BAEP (male; 6, female; 1, unilateral; 4, bilateral; 3) when abnormal BAEP was defined as being larger than two and a half standard deviations of the control group BAEP results. Two males of the DM group who showed abnormal structural lesions of the pons in their brain MRI were not included in the statistical analysis. The remaining 14 diabetic male patients (mean age: 58.7 +/-9.1 years, mean disease duration: 6.1 +/-4.7 years, mean hemoglobin (Hb) A1C: 7.7 +/- 2.0%) and 15 diabetic female patients (mean age: 60.6 +/-10.8 years, mean disease duration: 5.4 +/-5.1 years, mean HgA1C: 7.8 +/-2.1%) were stastistically analyzed. Interpeak latencies of I-III, III-V, and I-V were found to be signifi-cantly prolonged in the DM group. The prolongation of interpeak latencies of I-III and I-V were found to be signifi-cantly correlated with the disease duration only in the diabetic female patients, but not with age and HbA1c.
CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that both metabolic derangement and structural lesion contribute to prolonging the central conduction time on BAEP pathway in diabetics.

Keyword

Brainstem auditory evoked potential; Diabetes mellitus; Magnetic resonance image

MeSH Terms

Brain
Brain Stem*
Diabetes Mellitus
Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem*
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Pons