Pancreas transplantation halts the progression of polyneuropathy and ameliorates secondary complications in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, according to a recent study conducted at the University of Minnesota.
Although the investigators reported similar results in 1990 in The New England Journal of Medicine based on up to four years of follow-up, the more recent study provides more than ten years of follow-up. The new findings were reported by Xavier Navarro, MD, PhD, David E.R. Sutherland, MD, PhD, and William R. Kennedy, MD, in November in the Annals of Allergy (1997;42:727-736). "The tendency for improvement in polyneuropathy shown in smaller numbers of patients followed from 1 to 4 years after pancreatic transplantation is confirmed and given greater significance by this larger, long-term longitudinal study," they said.
The researchers studied 43 men and 72 women who had received a transplant and 92 control patients who were treated with insulin. In the control patients, neuropathy progressively worsened during follow-up. In contrast, motor and sensory nerve conduction indices increased significantly in the patients with transplants, and clinical examination and autonomic tests improved slightly. Results were similar regardless of whether patients had received a pancreas transplant alone, a pancreas transplant followed by a kidney transplant, or a simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant; however, the authors attributed the improvement "solely to the effects of pancreatic transplantation."
For Your Information: William R. Kennedy, MD, Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Box 187,UMHC, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
For Your Information:
William R. Kennedy, MD
Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota
Box 187,UMHC, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
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