4-g Monofilament Is Clinically Useful for Detecting Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy

The American Diabetes Association recommends the use of the 10-g Semmes-Weinstein monofilament for the early identification of diabetic patients at risk for foot ulceration (1). However, this 10-g monofilament can only detect advanced diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Thus, we evaluated whether other monofilaments could be useful for the detection of early DPN with high sensitivity and high specificity, and compared the results of monofilament tests with the results of microneurography. We recruited 65 patients (aged 61.0 ± 1.3 years, diabetes duration 9.8 ± 1.0 years [range 1-35]) with type 2 diabetes to participate in this study. Of these patients, 24 were treated with oral hypoglycemic …