Diabetes Mellitus

Autonomic Neuropathy in Diabetes Mellitus

“…The resemblance of the bladder disorder to that of tabes dorsalis engendered the belief that a spinal cord lesion was responsible and gave rise to the term 'the diabetic cord bladder' (Gill, 1936). Such histological findings as supported this contention (Woltman and Wilder, 1929) were derived from old subjects in whom vascular disease probably accounted for much of the pathological change. Gill (1936) found ' degenerative changes ' in the cord and posterior nerve roots of a diabetic with bladder palsy, but negative findings in a case are reported by Root and Kenny (1952).…”

Diabetic Myelopathy

“…Griggs and Olsen (1937) found degenerative lesions of the posterior and lateral columns in the cervical and mid-thoracic regions of the spinal cord. The most extensive modern study was reported by Woltman and Wilder (1929). In addition to changes in peripheral nerve fibres and the intraneural vessels they found BRITISH S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~M EDICAL JOURNAL degeneration of the posterior columns and anterior horn cells in the spinal cords from three diabetic patients.…”

The Neurological Complications of Diabetes Neurological Complications of Diabetes Mellitus: Clinical Aspects

“…All we can say to-day is that on the basis of histological studies there are those who think the neurological complications of diabetes are usually determined by arterial disease (Woltman and Wilder, 1929) or even by a specific diabetic angiopathy (Sullivan, 1958;Fagerberg, 1959), and those who advance cogent arguments against such theories (Rundles, 1945;Martin, 1953a;Bischoff, 1959). There is therefore no agreement as to whether the important factor is metabolic or ischmmic, nor do we know the anatomical level of the early lesions, and for this reason anatomical terms are better withheld from diagnostic labels.…”