I have Duputrens contracture. I got it about 6 years ago, It has not advanced past the small nodules on my palm. I am wondering if it is really duputrens or something similar in diabetics. I know it is common in people who are from northern Europe. It is also slightly more common in Type 1 s than the general population, but it is usually not severe in T1s. It supposedly has nothing to do with glycemic control, however.
That's what makes me wonder if it is really the same condition. No one knows for sure what causes it.
I heard it suggested that it is a complication of diabetes, but I doubt it. I had a non diabetic grandmother who had it with no diabetes,
I know many many out of control diabetics who do not have it too.
Any other T1s who have it. How severe, and how old were you when you got it. I was 40 which is very young.
I am diagnosed as a T2 and have some nodules on my right hand. Arguments that it is not related to diabetes and blood sugar control seem weird given the association.
Well the association is loose. There has been no study to make it clear. All of the people I know who have it are also of norther European decent.
So it is difficult to remove varying factors unless a true study that is broad and covers many different races and diabetics and non diabetics. T1 is also more likely in Northern Europeans so it makes it more murky.
The fact that I was trying to underscore is that in diabetics it seems to be much more mild and not progress.
Diabetics generally do not have fingers involved also. It is almost always a benign condition so there is little reason anyone would put money into finding out.
I was only curious because I happen to have it and people on TU and suggested it is a t1 complication.
People who have advanced stages have their fingers draw back, and unable to extend and is called trigger finger by some, But trigger finger is really a disease of the tendons.
If you have it, DON'T GOOGLE THE PICS there are too many horrible ones out there.
29 years of type1 and mutliple ortho complications, especially of hands. My hand surgeon says the nodules I have are Duputrens nodules but will not necessarily develop into the contracture. Interestingly though, my mother( nonD) had recently seen a hand specialist for something completely different and he commented on how she had Duputrens, which she hadn't even noticed the nodules or knew anything about, and asked about her ancestry, which is northern european. Trigger finger is something completely different. I've had multiple surgeries for trigger finger, deQuervains tenosynovitis, etc....the funny thing is that for all of the diabetes education ive recieved over the years, nobody had ever mentioned ortho complications or the glycation process behind it.
I don't think the association is loose. The sutdy reported in "Dupuytren's disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, trigger finger, and diabetes mellitus" from 1995 details a study that found significantly higher rates and discusses some of the reasons for this complications. A more recent article quotes an rate of 3-33% among the diabetic population, with an average rate of 20% (both T1 and T2 are affected).
This complication is considered "minor" so almost nobody bothers to do a lot of studies, but enough has been done to identify a significantly higher rate in people with diabetes. While lots of stuff claims that the connection is "not known" and not related to blood sugar control, I don't really beleive that. It is known that high blood sugars can cause a thickening of tendons and it may be that microvascular damage also results in poor growth and healing patterns.
I noticed this about 10 years ago (40 years of T1 at that time.) My doctor told me it was common in alcoholics and diabetics. At this point, I have several in my palms,and a couple on my knuckles. Doctor said that if they get bad, they can constrict, but I have seen no evidence of this, so I don't worry about them.
I think sometimes there are illnesses and problems that all kinds of people get, but diabetics tend to get these more often. Then it begins to become a complication, and caused by diabetes.
I don't think that Duputrens contracture is related to D. My father ( non-diabetic) and my grandfather ( non-diabetic) both had it. My grandfather was from Eastern Europe, and my father was born here. I don't remember it having a name back in the '50's when my g-father passed away. It must be getting more "popular" b/c there are a lot of TV commercials for a medication, actually , an injection for it. ( Their little and ring fingers were almost completely bent over.)
I have it. I started to notice it somewhere in my early 40s, but I can'be be sure when it started because I've always had callouses from lifting weights. I thought it was just another callous. It's pretty much identical to the picture posted.
Here's a link to a page on the International Dupuytern's Society page showing some relative population distributions:
The bottom line is that there are, apparently, a lot of contributing factors and unless people are prepared to do extensive multivariate analyses looking at the prevalence of Dupytren's, it will be difficult to draw any kind of conclusion supported by a preponerance of scientific evidence.
Yeah, any number of the papers I've read list Diabete's as a possible contributing factor but, like you say, of all the things to look at that can go wrong in Diabetes, I don't think too many scientists are willing to devote the time necessary to really examine Dupuytren's as a consequence of diabetes.
