Focussing on diabetes a worldwide epidemic, we used visual and auditory reaction time as a tool to detect neuropathy a common complication of diabetes in earlier stages so thatwe could prevent further damage to nerves.

Materials and Methods

Subjectswere enrolled based on detailed questionnaire and informed consent was obtained .The study was conducted at Salem in the month of July 2010 which included 40 Type 2 diabetic subjects from a private hospital in Salem. The mean age of diabetic subjects was 47.8 years. Inclusion criteria - Cases; AGE 40-49 Years, Duration of diabetes less than 10 years,HBA1C value less than 7.5%. Exclusion criteria - Alcoholics, diabetes with complication, subjects with auditory and visual disturbances. PC1000Hz Reaction timer was used to measure auditory and visual reaction time.

Results

Pearson correlation was applied for two groups. The auditory reaction time showed linear correlation with HBA1C with r value = 0.406. The visual reaction time showed linear correlation with HBA1C with r value = 0.2OO.

Conclusion

Auditory and visual reaction time correlated linearly with glycosylated haemoglobin. It could be because of the neuropathic changes in diabetes. This can be routinely applied to monitor neuropathic changes and its prognosis with glycemic status. This device measures pshycomotor response of the individual.