About Diabetes
Complications
Warning Signs
Screening Test
Donate Now
E-Lerts™
Index
Latest News
Diabetes Terms
Health & Fitness
Online Press Center
Limited Joint Mobility May Play a Role in Diabetic
Foot Ulcers
posted 04/16/04
In diabetic patients with neuropathy, limited joint mobility
may contribute to the development of foot ulcers, according to a report in the
April issue of Diabetes Care.
In a cross-sectional study, Dr. Stefan Zimny, of Evangelisches Krankenhaus
Bethesda, Duisburg, Germany, and colleagues evaluated the role of limited joint
mobility in causing high plantar pressures in the forefoot of diabetics with an
at-risk foot. Included were 35 at-risk diabetic patients with foot neuropathy,
35 diabetic controls without neuropathy, and 30 nondiabetic controls.
The researchers assessed joint mobility at the ankle and metatarsophalangeal
joints, using the FastScan plantar pressure analyzer to measure the
pressure-time integrals as dynamic variables in each foot. Standard measures of
peripheral neuropathy were also assessed.
Compared with the diabetic and nondiabetic controls, patients in the at-risk
group had significantly reduced mobility at the ankle and the first
metatarsophalangeal joints (p < 0.0001). In addition, the pressure-time
integrals were significantly higher in this group compared with the other two
groups (p < 0.0001).
"The vibration perception threshold was positively correlated with the
pressure-time integrals in both feet of the diabetic patients," the researcher
report.
Based on these findings, Dr. Zimny's group concludes that measuring joint
mobility is "a simple and rather exact test to identify diabetic patients with
an at-risk foot."
"The method is simpler and less costly than measuring the plantar pressuring
loading of the foot itself," they add, "and might therefore be useful as a
screening tool."
Source: Diabetes In Control.com: Diabetes Care 2004;27:942-946.
|
|
|
To be sure and come back to keep up with all the
Latest News and important information for diabetics - and to remind
yourself to manage and control your diabetes, click the yellow link
below
to add a small icon of our Defeat Diabetes® "Torch"
logo to your desktop. All you need to do after that is
click on the "Torch" to open our website.
Remember, we're here for you!
Translate this page into Spanish using FreeTranslation.com. © Copyright 2001 - 2004, Defeat Diabetes Foundation, Inc., All Rights Reserved |
We
subscribe to the HONcode principles