AUDITORY EVENT RELATED POTENTIALS IN TYPE 1 DIABETES MELLITUS

Background. Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a common disorder which causes a variety of complications such as cognitive deficits in central nervous system. Auditory P300 event related potential is a well-established neurophysiologic approach in the assessment of cognitive performance. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the cognitive performance in insulin dependent diabetic patients by auditory event related potentials. Methods. In this descriptive analytical and non-interventional study, auditory P300 event related potential was measured in oddball paradigm by using two tone burst stimuli (1000 & 2000 Hz) on 25 diabetic patients and 25 age, education and sex matched healthy controls, with mean age 28.76 +/- 4.1 in patients and 29.68 +/- 3.6 in controls. Results. The mean P300 latency of the diabetic patients was significantly prolonged and the mean P300 amplitude of the diabetic patients was significantly lower when compared with that of controls at all electrode sites (p<0.01). Also there was a strong correlation between P300 latency and glucose level, HbA1c and diabetes duration (p<0.01). Conclusion. Auditory information processing is slower and the speed of information categorizing is lower in diabetic patients than in controls.