[Diabetic neuropathic cachexia (author's transl)].

Marked weight loss with cachexia together with severe depression and pain from symmetrical peripheral neuropathy were noted in a 66-year-old man, known to have had diabetes for six years, which required insulin on admission to hospital. The patient died of bronchopneumonia after one year. The severe neuropathy was proven both neurophysiologically and at necropsy. There was no diabetic retinopathy and no histological evidence of renal glomerulosclerosis. There was no evidence of a malignant tumour either clinically or at necropsy.