Eyekon Is a Novel Diagnostic Tool for Diabetic Neuropathy

Diabetic neuropathy (DN) is a major complication of diabetes, causing more than 50% of all hospital accesses related to type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, diagnostic criteria are not yet standardized, and diagnosis also of symptomatic DN is often underestimated. Given the medical need for an accurate non-invasive diagnostic tool, we developed a test based on tracking eye movement for early detection of DN called Eykon. SRLab -Tobii TX300 Eye tracker®, an eye-tracking device, is coupled with a series of screens on a computer to test the velocity and accuracy of gaze movement in healthy controls (CTRL, n=30), T1D patients without neuropathy (T1D, n=19) and T1D patients with neuropathy (T1D-N, n=14). The screens are divided in 5 classes: Resistance, Wideness, Pursuit, Velocity and OKN. They aim to evaluate both smooth and saccadic movement in different directions. We evaluated a total of 483 parameters and observed that 27 (5.6%) were altered in T1D patients without signs of advanced DN at the electromyography as compared to CTRL, while 29 (6%) were altered in T1D-N patients, for a total of 56 (11.6%) significantly altered parameters (T1D vs. CTRL). Our pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of this non-invasive exam and its ability to early detect DN, despite the limitations of a small number of subjects.