Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of Composite Autonomic Symptom Score-31 (COMPASS-31) in cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Methods A total of 105 hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology from October 2018 to May 2019 were enrolled. 41 cases were diagnosed as CAN, and the other 64 cases were non-CAN. The clinical characteristics and COMPASS-31 total scores between the two groups were compared. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between COMPASS-31 scores and CARTs parameters. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to analyze and screen the risk factors of CAN, and the combined models were established. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of COMPASS-31 score and combined models in CAN.

Results Patients with CAN had higher COMPASS-31 total score (P < 0.001). The COMPASS-31 total score was closely correlated with CARTs parameters (P < 0.05). Further analyses showed that increase of COMPASS-31 total score was an independent risk factor for CAN. The best cut-off point of COMPASS-31 total score identifying CAN was greater than 19.5 points (AUC 0.788, sensitivity 68.3%, specificity 79.7%). Incorporating COMPASS-31 total score into the general risk factor model significantly increased the AUC for diagnosis of CAN (0.845 vs 0.905, P < 0.05).

Conclusions COMPASS-31 is simple, rapid, and easy to operate in clinic. It has a certain diagnostic value for CAN in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and might be used as an evaluation tool for CAN.