Neurosensorial complaints of patients with diabetes receiving oral versus insulin treatment
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic syndrome of impaired carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism secondary to insufficient secretion of insulin or to target tissue insulin resistance.
The most common and most overlooked cause of vertigo is the impairment of carbohydrate metabolism. It is important that the patient with vertigo must be investigated from a metabolic point of view because the vascular complications of diabetes are reversible in the presence of good blood sugar control in the early, so called occult diabetic cases. Vertigo is a cry of alarm of the balance system in distress – even more sensitive a register than is fluctuating hearing loss. Disturbances of carbohydrate and insulin metabolism explained the mystery of the 64% of Meniere’s patients heretofore classified as “idiopathic”.
For the present neurootological study we are compairing two samples of diabetic patients: a.) patients with insulin antidiabetic treatment (29 persons, 55,2% males and 44,8% females) and b.) patients with oral antidiabetic treatment (79 cases, 50.6% males and 49,4% females). When checking for the average number of vertigo symptoms per patient group a.) exhibits 2,21 and group b.) 2,10 signs per patients. Furthermore group a.) complains in 55,17% of tinnitus and in 58,62% of hearing loss and group b.) in 59,49% of tinnitus and 55,70% of hearing loss. The experimental neurootologic investigations show pathology in group a.) caloric butterfly 72,41%, step-CCG 75,86% and pure tone bone conduction audiometry right 27,59% and left 37,93% ear and group b.) ENG with butterfly 69,62%, steptest-CCG 70,89% and bone conduction pure tone audiometry on the right side 34,18% and 41,77% on the left side.