Background
Diabetes mellitus is a systemic endocrinal disease that results either from deficiency of insulin hormone (type 1) or from insulin resistance or both (type 2). The pathophysiology of the oropharyngeal dysphagia in diabetics is still not completely clear. However, the autonomic neuropathy associated with long term hyperglycemia is claimed to be the cause. Literature is scared related to dysphagia with diabetes. This complaint is expressed by some patients and needs to be explored.
Aim
The aim of this work is to screen Egyptian diabetic patients (type 1 and type 2) in El-Demerdash hospital for oropharyngeal dysphagia using the validated Arabic version of Eating Assessment Tool (A-EAT-10) questionnaire in order to explore the degree of such symptom among them.
Methods
This was a cross sectional study conducted to screen the diabetic patients (of both type 1 and type 2) in El-Demerdash hospital for oropharyngeal dysphagia. 200 Egyptian adult diabetic patients, aged 18 – 59 years, were included in this study. The present study included 118 patients of type 1 diabetes and 82 patients of type 2 diabetes.The participants were selected from Ain Shams university outpatient clinic. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were determined by the medical history taken from the patients before answering the Arabic version of Eating Assessment Tool (A-EAT-10).
Results
The increase in mean age of the dysphagic patients (43.63 ±10.47) years compared with the mean age of the non-dysphagic patients (38.36±12.55) years with p= 0.012 and having a female gender (22.6% of the female patients participating in this study complained from dysphagia symptoms compared to only 7.5% of the participating male patients, P= 0.008) were considered of high risk for dysphagia among diabetic patients participating in this study. 23.2% of patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 had dysphagia symptoms compared to 13.6% of patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 who had dysphagia and this difference was statistically of no significance, p=0.578.The commonest symptom among diabetic patients who complained from dysphagia was “I cough when I eat”.
Discussion
Diabetic patients might encounter swallowing problems which could be overlooked by caregivers and should be put in consideration while dealing with diabetic patients. The A-EAT 10 is an easy method that can be used for screening of swallowing difficulty.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.

Screening of oropharyngeal dysphagia in patients with diabetes mellitus in El-Demerdash Hospital