Introduction: Peripheral neuropathy is a common complication of diabetes mellitus, with
a prevalence rate of 5.3–47.6%. Alpha lipoic acid (ALA) is an antioxidant used in the
treatment of neuro-inflammation, diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. The current study
aiming to gauge the effect of oral ALA on diabetic peripheral neuropathy, glycemic
control, LDL-C, and HDL-C. Patients and Methods: This is a prospective, interventional
study carried out on patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) who were following at
the outpatient internal medicine & diabetes clinics at Benha University Hospital.
Treatment with ALA for 3 months was given to patient with diabetic peripheral
neuropathy. Data in the form of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), duration & treatment
of DM, manifestations of peripheral neuropathy were collected. LDL-C, HDL-C, HbA1c,
TSH, ALT, AST were measured before and after intervention. Peripheral neuropathy
symptoms, nerve conduction velocities, cardiovascular (CV) tests of autonomic
neuropathy, and cross-section area of the posterior tibial nerve were performed before
and after treatment intervention. Results: 90 adult diabetic patients were recruited in
the study, 42.2% were females and 57.8 % were males with a median age of 50-60.3
years (IQR = 52). A statistically significant improvements of neuropathic symptoms,
nerve conduction velocity, and cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy were noted after
3 months of administration of ALA (p ˂0.001). However, the cross-section area of the
posterior tibial nerve at baseline and after treatment did not change significantly (p
value of 0.84). There was a significant improvement in the BMI, HDL-C, LDL-C, HbA1c
(p ˂ 0.001). Conclusion: Oral treatment with ALA might cause ameliorations of
peripheral neuropathy, HbA1c, and LDL-C & HDL-C levels in diabetic patients. Our
result failed to proof effect of ALA on nerve cross-section area. The global data
encourage further studies with this medication as an ancillary treatment of DM2. |
