Shear wave elastography (SWE) can be used to assess neuromuscular disorders. This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of extensor digitorum brevis shear wave velocity (EDB-SWV) in distinguishing among different stages of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). In total, 127 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) were divided into four groups based on clinical symptoms/signs and motor nerve conduction velocity (MCV): control (Group A) (asymptomatic, MCV ≥ 40 m/s, n = 30), symptomatic/suspected DPN (Group B) (symptomatic, MCV ≥ 40 m/s, n = 34), subclinical DPN (Group C) (asymptomatic, MCV 0.9). For DPN diagnosis, SWV achieved a sensitivity of 0.948 at a cut-off of 1.985 m/s (AUC = 0.804), and its combination with HbA1c improved diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.870). EDB-SWV was significantly increased in all diagnostic subgroups of DPN, and it had a higher sensitivity, which is expected to become an indicator for assessing DPN.
吕发辉 et al. (Wed,) studied this question.