Objective:

To explore the effects of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) on the clinical outcomes in individuals diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Background:

The coexistence of DM and CIDP creates symptom overlap, complicating diagnosis and treatment. However, the long-term effects of DM on CIDP outcomes are still uncertain.

Design/Methods:

We conducted a retrospective analysis of Epic Cosmos records from January 2015 to January 2024, which included 51,444 CIDP patients. These patients were categorized into two groups based on the presence of diabetes.

Results:

Among the 51,444 patients with CIDP, 33.9% also had DM. The outcomes for CIDP patients with DM were notably worse (p<0.05), as evidenced by increased mortality rates (7.4% vs. 3.3%), higher amputation rates (2.4% vs. 0.253%), greater levels of disability (19% vs. 10.9%), and more frequent admissions to SNF (21.2% vs. 9.4%). This group also had elevated inflammatory markers, including Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) (17.2% vs. 9.8%) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) (35% vs. 8.5%), indicating more pronounced systemic inflammation compared to their counterparts without DM.

Conclusions:

Our study demonstrated that DM is associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with CIDP. These adverse outcomes may be due to direct damage to the peripheral nerves by DM, exacerbating the nerve damage caused by CIDP, or the presence of diabetic neuropathy complicating the timely diagnosis and treatment of CIDP. The findings underscore the urgent need for specific biomarkers to improve the diagnosis of CIDP in patients with diabetes, aiming to enhance patient outcomes through earlier and more targeted.