Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Mar 15, 2018; 9(3): 59-65
Published online Mar 15, 2018. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v9.i3.59
Patients with type 2 diabetes demonstrate proprioceptive deficit in the knee
Lucas Richard Ettinger, Ami Boucher, Elisabeth Simonovich
Lucas Richard Ettinger, Ami Boucher, Elisabeth Simonovich, Department of Exercise Science, Willamette University, Salem, OR 97302, United States
Author contributions: Boucher A and Simonovich E performed the majority of experiments and were also involved in editing the manuscript; all authors were involved with data analysis and interpretation; Ettinger LR designed the study and wrote the manuscript.
Supported by The Willamette University Mary Stuart Rogers Science Collaborative Research Program Endowment.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Willamette University Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: Written and verbal consent to enrollment in the study was obtained by all study participants prior to all other aspects of this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Lucas Richard Ettinger, PhD, Professor, Department of Exercise Science, Willamette University, 900 State Street, Salem, OR 97302, United States. lettinge@willamette.edu
Telephone: +1-503-3706240 Fax: +1-503-3706773
Received: January 25, 2018
Peer-review started: January 26, 2018
First decision: February 27, 2018
Revised: March 5, 2018
Accepted: March 14, 2018
Article in press: March 14, 2018
Published online: March 15, 2018
Processing time: 63 Days and 10.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is often associated with small diameter afferent nerve damage. Here, we demonstrate participants with type-2 diabetes performing proprioceptive tasks as measured by a joint position sense activity of the lower extremity, result in greater errors with limb localization than matched controls. Findings from this study indicate that both large and small diameter afferent nerves are likely involved in diabetic neuropathy. These findings warrant future studies involving joint position sense as a measurement tool for disease progression and treatment.