Relation Between Neuritis and the Clinical Background in Diabetes Mellitus

DISORDERS of the nervous system are commonly found among a clientele of persons with diabetes. The subject having been so often dealt with since the first report, by Marchal de Calvi,1appeared in 1864, instead of surveying the literature I refer to exhaustive studies by Kraus,2Woltman and Wilder,3Jordan,4to more recent reports by Broch and Klövstad,5Rudy,6Rudy and Epstein,7Rundles,8Swartz9and to the pertinent chapters in Joslin's "The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus"10and Wilson's "Neurology.11Owing to the difficulties of defining the conception of diabetic neuropathy, on the one hand, and, on the other, of establishing stable criteria from the variability of symptoms presented by the diabetic patient, much is still obscure regarding the relation obtaining between the nervous disorders and the diabetic condition. In the present paper I shall endeavor to overcome these difficulties by comparing a group of diabetic patients