Abstract: Objective To compare the effects of inspection, palpation and B-ultrasonography in evaluating the subcutaneous adipose hyperplasia at insulin injection sites in the elderly patients with diabetes. Methods A total of 90 hospitalized elderly patients with diabetes were included from June to December 2019, and these patients had received insulin injections for more than 1 year. Inspection, palpation and B-ultrasonography were used to evaluate the subcutaneous adipose hyperplasia at injection site. The false positive rate, false negative rate and error rate of inspection and palpation were evaluated based on B-ultrasonography results. Results The detection rate of subcutaneous adipose hyperplasia was 56.7% by B-ultrasonography. The detection rate by inspection was 16.7%, which was lower than that by B-ultrasonography(P<0.01). The positive detection rate by palpation examination was 54.4%, which was equivalent to that by B-ultrasonography, but higher than that by inspection. The false positive rate, false negative rate and error rate of inspection was 5.1%, 74.5% and 44.4%, respectively. The false positive rate, false negative rate and error rate of palpation were 28.2%, 25.5% and 26.7%, respectively. Conclusions The routine use of B-ultrasonography is the main assessment method to evaluate the subcutaneous adipose hyperplasia at the injection site in the diabetic patients, which can reduce the error rate.

Key words: aged, diabetes, insulin injection, subcutaneous adipose hyperplasia, evaluation method