• Eman A Tawfik, Francis O Walker, Michael S Cartwright, and Rana A El-Hilaly.
• Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
• J Neuroimaging. 2017 Nov 1; 27 (6): 589-593.

Background And PurposeAutonomic neuropathy is a serious and common complication of diabetes mellitus. The vagus nerve is the longest autonomic nerve, and may be affected in diabetes as a part of generalized neuropathy. Our objective was to assess for possible sonographic changes of the vagus nerve in diabetic patients.MethodsThe vagus nerve was bilaterally scanned in 20 healthy volunteers and 54 patients with diabetes in the axial plane at the lateral neck.ResultsThe mean cross-sectional area of the vagus nerve was significantly smaller in patients with diabetes compared with controls. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed an area under the curve of .96, and an optimum cutoff point of 3 mm2 with a sensitivity of 85.2% and specificity of 100%.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates a degree of vagus nerve atrophy in patients with diabetes. This finding may have relevance in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic neuropathy if further validated.Copyright © 2017 by the American Society of Neuroimaging.

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