posted 09/11/02
Use of infrared home
temperature monitor can help detect early signs of inflammation in diabetic
patients' feet, helping to prevent the development of ulcers and other serious
complications such as amputation.
This was the conclusion of a study presented by Dr.
Lawrence Lavery, of Loyola University, Illinois, at the 38th Annual
Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).
Diabetics with nerve damage often develop ulcers on their feet because they
cannot feel that their foot is sore from an injury, Dr. Lavery said. "However,
prior to developing an ulceration, the surrounding tissue becomes inflamed, and
the inflammation can be measured by a change in local skin temperatures, often
days before the tissue is damaged enough to ulcerate," he explained.
In order to find out if a home temperature-monitoring device could help
high-risk diabetics prevent foot ulcerations, Dr. Lavery and colleagues
performed a randomized, single blind study, using 173 diabetics with a previous
history of foot ulceration.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a standard therapy
group; a structured exam group; or an enhanced therapy group. All patients
received therapeutic footwear, diabetic foot education and regular foot care
throughout the trial, which lasted 15 months.
Diabetics in the structured exam group performed a structured foot inspection
daily and recorded their findings in a logbook. If structured exam subjects or
standard therapy subjects identified any foot abnormalities, they were to
contact the study nurse immediately.
Subjects in the enhanced therapy group used an infrared skin thermometer (FootScan™)
to measure temperatures on six foot sites each day. Patients were instructed to
contact the study nurse and reduce activity until temperatures normalized if the
instrument detected a temperature difference greater than 4°F between left and
right corresponding sites.
During the course of the trial, 8.5 percent of patients in the enhanced therapy
group developed foot ulcers, compared to 27.6 percent in the standard therapy
group (p=0.02) and 30.4 percent in the structured exam group (p=0.01).
The investigators concluded that "infrared temperature home monitoring may be a
useful adjunct in the prevention of diabetic foot complications in persons at
highest risk for lower extremity amputation."
Source: Diabetes In Control Dot
Com: The study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, through a
research grant to Salix Medical, Inc., manufacturers of FootScan™.