Interest of the SUDOSCAN in the screening of cardiac autonomic neuropathy in type 2 diabetics

Introduction: Cardiac autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is one of the first complications of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and a silent cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. SUDOSCAN, a digital chronoamperometric analysis device, has appeared in recent years and allows a rapid and non-invasive quantitative assessment of sudomotor function, which will allow the measurement of sympathetic cholinergic function in the assessment of CAN by reflecting the state of the autonomic nervous system. The main purpose of the present study is to evaluate the usefulness of SUDOSCAN in the detection of cardiac autonomic neuropathy in type 2 diabetic patients. Patients and methods: In this study we recruited 85 patients with type 2 diabetes. The study data were collected by questionnaire, clinical examination and SUDOSCAN. Results: The 85 patients had a mean age of 58.32 ± 10.89 years, with a large female predominance, and a sex ratio of 0.28. 67% of our patients had diabetes for less than 10 years. The SUDOSCAN measurement noted 54.1% with a moderate risk of having CAN, 45.9% with a low risk, and a zero percentage with a high risk of having CAN. Conclusion: The risk score for cardiac autonomic neuropathy assessed by SUDOSCAN, and its ease of use and interpretation, make it a good screening test for cardiac autonomic neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes.