Peripheral neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes associated with significant morbidity and increased mortality. Although the increased risk for development of neuropathy associated with long- standing diabetes has been well documented, the frequency and types of neuropathy developing in the early years after the diagnosis of diabetes has not been well studied. Furthermore, there are no studies specifically focusing on young (children and adolescent) Hispanic diabetics as a distinctive cohort in spite of the high frequency of both type I and type II diabetes. Our long-range goal is to develop methods for the prevention and treatment of the various types of Diabetic Neuropathy affecting the Puerto Rican population. Our current objective is to determine the frequency of the different types of diabetic neuropathy in young Puerto Rican diabetics, and examine the association of neuropathy with factors that may contribute to the development of neuropathy. Our central hypothesis is that the prevalence of diabetic neuropathy is greater in young Puerto Rican diabetics and is associated with ethnic-specific risk factors, different from those observed in other ethnically and genetically different populations. The rationale for the proposed study is that determining the prevalence of the individual types of diabetic neuropathy is the first step in identify potential risk factors present in Puerto Rican diabetics, and in devising this study.
Specific Aim 1 : Determine the frequency of neuropathy-associated symptoms, signs and functional abnormalities of nerve fibers.
Specific Aim 2 : Determine the frequency of putative risk factors associated with the different types of diabetic neuropathy in this subpopulation. The proposed research will allow us to understand what is the relationship between the high frequency of diabetes and the development of neuropathy in this high-risk population.
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