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WEDNESDAY, June 5, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Lowering serum cholesterol levels in patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN), according to a study published online May 31 in JAMA Network Open<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Johann M.E. Jende, M.D., from Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, and colleagues assessed the association between serum cholesterol levels and peripheral nerve lesions in patients with type 2 diabetes both with and without DPN. One hundred participants (mean age, 64.6 years; 68 percent male) underwent magnetic resonance neurography of the right leg, as well as clinical, serologic, and electrophysiologic assessment.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that the lipid equivalent lesion (LEL) load positively correlated with the nerve’s mean cross-sectional area and the maximum length of a lesion. A negative association was noted between LEL load and total serum cholesterol level, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, nerve conduction velocities of the tibial and peroneal nerves, and nerve conduction amplitudes of the tibial and peroneal nerves.<\/p>\n
“These findings may be relevant to emerging therapies that promote an aggressive lowering of serum cholesterol levels in patients with type 2 diabetes,” the authors write.<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n