WASHINGTON — Diabetics, watch out: A hot spot on your foot can signal an ulcer is brewing, a wound that could cost your limb.
New research by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that using a special thermometer to measure the temperature of their soles can give patients enough early warning to avoid one of diabetes’ most intractable complications. Foot ulcers are so slow-healing and vulnerable to infection that they’re to blame for most of the roughly 80,000 amputations of toes, feet and lower legs that diabetics undergo each year.
Using the thermometer reduced by nearly two-thirds the number of high-risk patients who got foot ulcers, a study of 225 diabetic veterans found.
This isn’t a standard thermometer, but a $150 infrared one with a tip that digitally measures skin temperature on contact.
Maker Xilas Medical is working to make the thermometer resemble a bathroom scale that would find trouble spots. For now, Xilas sells the handheld TempTouch by prescription only.
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