Checking Foot Temperature Curbs Diabetic Sores

Type 2 patients who monitor their foot temperatures at home may be able to ward off developing leg and foot ulcers — and the infections and amputations that can result. Dr. Lawrence A. Lavery of Texas A&M Health Science Center, in Temple, and colleagues examined the effectiveness of at-home infrared temperature monitoring in 85 at-risk patients.

Forty-one participants were assigned to a standard therapy group and were given therapeutic footwear, diabetic foot education, and regular foot evaluations by a podiatrist.

Forty-four subjects were placed in an enhanced therapy group in which they received standard care plus a handheld infrared skin thermometer to measure temperatures on the sole of the affected foot in the morning and evening.

If elevated temperatures were detected — greater than 4 degrees F compared to the other foot — the patients were considered at risk of ulceration and were instructed to reduce their activity and contact the study nurse.

The participants were followed for 6 months, during which time nine foot complications were seen in the standard therapy group, compared with one complication in the enhanced therapy group.

Infections developed in two patients in the standard therapy group and local foot amputations were performed. In contrast, no infections or amputations occurred in the enhanced therapy group, Lavery’s team reports.

They realize that the results might have come from enhanced vigilance among subjects given the thermometer, and say they look forward to further studies of this approach.

If its value is confirmed, “thermometers may be used to allow patients to dose their activity … just as many dose their insulin by checking their blood glucose,” the researchers write.

Diabetes Care, November 2004.

DID YOU KNOW:

Think Before You Eat: If you eat two cookies, about 150 calories, and you weigh about 140 pounds, you’ll have to walk more than an hour at a pace of 2 miles an hour to burn off those cookies. Speed up the walk to 3.5 mph, and you still have to walk 45 minutes. (Eating the cookies probably took less than a minute.) What if you ate a peach, with about 40 calories, instead? It would take just 10 minutes of brisk walking to work it off.

The November issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource