Objective To investigate the clinical effect and safety of Epalrestat,an aldose reductase inhibitor(ARI),on patients with diabetic neuropathy.Methods 80 patients with diabetic neuropathy were randomly divided into two groups,one group were treated with Epalrestat,the other was treated with VitB12 for 16 weeks.All patients were measured on their symptoms,the physical signs and SNCV of medial nerve,ulnar nerve,peroneal nerve and tibial nerve during the treatment.Results The degrees of improvement were similar between the two groups.The subjective symptom and physical signs were significantly improved(P

Objective To investigate the role of nerve growth factor (NGF) in the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy (DNP) and the correlation of NGF level with,sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and duration of DNP.MethodsThe 41 patients with DNP,35 diabetics without DNP and 33 healthy controls were enrolled.And the serum level of NGF was measured with ELISA,the SNCV of left medial nerve,ulnar nerve,peroneal nerve and tibial nerve were measured too. Then the correlation analysis was completed. ResultsThe serum level of NGF was significantly lower in DNP patients [(665.18±188.32) ng/L] than in healthy controls [(976.44±159.07)ng/L] and in diabetics without DNP [(943.32±167.33) ng/L,F=9.316,P<0.001].The NGF level of DNP patients was positively correlated with SNCV of left medial nerve (r=0.810,P<0.001 ),left peroneal nerve (r=0.760,P<0.001) and duration of DNP (r=0.542,P<0.001).Conclusions The serum level of NGF is lower in DNP patients than in healthy controls.The decrease of the production of NGF may play a role in the pathogenesis of DNP.