Results
The average age of the 702 diabetic patients evaluated in our study was
55.9 ± 13.2 years. Out of all patients, 55.1% (n = 387) were female and
44.9% (n = 315) were male, and 8.1% (n = 57) were diagnosed with type
1 diabetes and 91.9% (n = 645) with type 2 diabetes. The demographic
and diabetes-related data of the patients are shown in Table 1 .
Musculoskeletal system problems were present in
45.9% (n = 322) of the patients
included in the study. While 22.4% (n = 157) of the patients had a
single finding, 23.5% (n = 155) had two and more findings together. The
frequency of musculoskeletal system disorders were as follow: Carpal
tunnel syndrome in 17.7% (n = 124), Dupuytren’s contracture in 14.4%
(n = 101), limited joint mobility syndrome in 10.2% (n = 72), adhesive
capsulitis in 13.8% (n = 97), flexor tenosynovitis in 2.8% (n = 20),
diabetic foot in 6% (n = 39) and Charcot arthropathy in 1.7% (n = 12).
The most common musculoskeletal disorder was carpal tunnel syndrome, and
bilateral involvement of the disease was observed in 46.7% (n = 58) of
patients. Dupuytren’s contracture was found to be more common in
patients with type 2 diabetes compared to patients with type 1 diabetes
(15% and 1.8%, respectively), and this result was statistically
significant (p = 0.015). The relationship of musculoskeletal disorders
with the type of diabetes is shown in Table 2 .
The relationship of the musculoskeletal disorders with age and the
duration of diabetes was evaluated. There was a statistically
significant relationship between Dupuytren’s contracture (p< 0.001), LJMS (p <0.001) and diabetic foot
(p = 0.021) and the mean patient age. The duration of diabetes
was associated with Dupuytren’s contracture, adhesive capsulitis, carpal
tunnel syndrome, flexor tenosynovitis, and limited joint mobility
syndrome (p <0.005).
In our study, the relationship between HbA1c level and musculoskeletal
disorders was demonstrated. HbA1c levels were higher in patients with
musculoskeletal disorders, and there was a statistically significant
difference in Dupuytren’s contracture (p <0.001),
adhesive capsulitis (p = 0.048), and carpal tunnel syndrome
(p = 0.045). The relationship between musculoskeletal disorders
and HbA1c is shown in Figure 1 .
The proteinuria level was also higher in patients with musculoskeletal
manifestations. However, a statistically significant relationship with
proteinuria was found only between flexor tenosynovitis and diabetic
foot (p <0.05). An association between microvascular
complications and musculoskeletal disorders was also found. A
significant relationship between Dupuytren’s contracture and diabetic
foot with all of the microvascular complications was detected. A
relationship between adhesive capsulitis and retinopathy was also found
to be significant. Likewise, there was a substantial relationship of
LJMS and flexor tenosynovitis with nephropathy. The relationship of
musculoskeletal system disorders with microvascular complications, age,
duration of diabetes, HbA1c, and proteinuria are shown in Table
3.