Yueyue Fu,1 Yuling Xing,2 Linlin Yang,3 Jing Liu,2 Huijuan Ma3 

1Graduate School of North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Endocrinology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Endocrinology, the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Jing Liu, Department of Endocrinology, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 13673186039, Email liujing981531@163.com Huijuan Ma, Department of Endocrinology, the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 18032838686, Email huijuanma76@163.com

Purpose: To explore the correlation between fasting C-peptide to diabetes duration ratio (FCP/DD) and diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).
Methods: The study was conducted on 816 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). Subjects were classified into a diabetic peripheral neuropathy group (DPN, n=408) and a non-diabetic peripheral neuropathy group (NDPN, n=408) depending on the presence of DPN. Collected patients’ baseline data, calculated the FCP/DD ratio, and analyzed the correlation between FCP/DD and DPN.
Results: A comparative analysis of general characteristics revealed that the DPN group exhibited higher values for age, DD, proportion of hypertension, proportion of DN, and proportion of DR compared to the NDPN group, Conversely, the DPN group demonstrated lower proportions of eGFR, FCP/DD, FCP, and fatty liver relative to the NDPN group, with all differences achieving statistical significance (P < 0.05). Compared to the high FCP/DD group, the low FCP/DD group exhibited higher values in age, DD, the proportion of DPN, DN, DR, and hypertension, as well as elevated levels of HDL-C and NEUT (P< 0.05). Conversely, the low FCP/DD group demonstrated a lower proportion of patients who smoked and those with fatty liver, along with reduced BMI, ALB, FBG, UA, eGFR, TC, TG, and LDL-C levels (P < 0.05). In patients with T2DM, after adjusting for confounding factors, high levels of FCP/DD were found to be a protective factor for DPN (P < 0.05). The area under the curve of the FCP/DD Model predicting DPN (AUC=0.737) was higher than that of single FCP (AUC=0.587), DD (AUC=0.665).
Conclusion: The high FCP/DD ratio was a protective factor for T2DM with DPN. Additionally, the FCP/DD ratio was found to be a better predictor for the occurrence of DPN in T2DM compared to FCP and DD alone.

Keywords: Diabetic peripheral neuropathy, type 2 diabetes, FCP/DD