Table 1.

Patients' baseline characteristics

		C	D	DN
Patients		21	27	19
Male/Female		13/8	19/8	10/9
Age (years)	mean (SD)	56.6 (11.8)	52.7 (12.7)	53.7 (10.4)
BMI (Kg/m2)	mean (SD)	25.0 (3.1)	25.3 (3.4)	27.0 (4.9)
Type 1/Type 2		-	8/19	9/10
Diab. Duration (years)	mean (SD)	-	15.1 (9.3)	19.4 (9.3)
HbA1c (%) °	mean (SD)	-	7.5 (1.5)	7.8 (1.8)
VPT toe (Volt)	mean (SD)	5.3 (2.1)	14.7 (5.7)	31.5 (7.6) *
NDS		0	3.8 [0–5]	6.95 [6–8]*
Retinopathy (a/b/p)		-	24/0/3	9/5/5
Nephropathy (a/m/M)		-	26/1/0	16/2/1

C: controls; D: diabetic patients without neuropathy; DN: diabetic patients with neuropathy

SD: standard deviation

* D vs DN; Student's t-test, p < 0.05

a/b/p = absent, background, proliferative;

a/m/M = absent/microalbuminuria/macroalbuminuria

° normal range: 4.3 – 5.9%.