Background and purpose: Neuropathic pain (NP) is the most disabling complaint in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (PDPN). Neurodynamics (ND) is assessment and treatment of neural tissue mechanosensitivity (NTM). Vibration perception threshold (VPT) is a measure of large fiber function and thermal perception threshold (TPT) is a measure of small fiber function. Quality of life (QoL) is a subjective perception of well-being in a person’s living. The purpose of this study was to assess the inter-relationship between NP, NTM, VPT, TPT and QoL in patients with PDPN., Materials and methods: Assessor-blinded cross-sectional study with random-order test method was carried out on 112 PDPN patients of either gender (67 female, 45 male) of age … years with medically diagnosed distal symmetric polyneuropathy for at-least 3 years due to type-2 diabetes for greater than 5 years duration. The NP was assessed using neuropathic pain questionnaire (NPQ); ND assessment comprised of neurodynamic testing (range of motion in degrees) and nerve trunk palpation (presence of mechanical allodynia by clinical scoring) of sciatic, tibial and common peroneal nerves; VPT and TPT (which includes heat perception threshold- HPT and cold perception threshold- CPT) was assessed using biothesiometer; and QoL was measured using neuropathy-specific quality of life (NeuroQoL) instrument. The assessments were done only once per patient. Total assessment duration for each patient was one hour., Data analysis and results: All correlations were analyzed using Karl-Pearson’s correlation co-efficient at 95% confidence interval using SPSS 11.5 for Windows., Conclusion: There was a statistically significant positive correlation found between neuropathic pain, neurodynamic testing, neuropathy-specific quality of life in patients with PDPN.

Key words: Diabetic neuropathy, clinical examination correlates, quantitative sensory testing, self-administered questionnaires, manual therapy examination