Prediction of Peripheral Neuropathy With Functional Testing

Diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are two distinct pathologies. The former is defined as an impairment in insulin production and/or utilization, while the latter refers to structural or functional abnormalities of the kidneys. However, these two diseases share a common complication: peripheral neuropathy. This condition affects between 50% and 60% of patients with diabetes or CKD. Peripheral neuropathy involves the destruction of sensory and motor neurons, leading to a wide range of painful symptoms while also reducing force production capacity. Among the diagnostic tests used, the most accessible clinical tests suffer from high variability due to human subjectivity (e.g., the tuning fork test, which requires examiner expertise and verbal patient feedback), whereas laboratory electrophysiological tests can only detect the largest neurons, which are affected at later stages. Alth