(Press-News.org) Every 30 seconds somebody in the world is amputated as a consequence of foot complication due to diabetes. A new study at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, confirmes that shoe inserts, podiatry, regular checkups and other simple interventions can reduce the number of amputations by more than 50%.
Orthotic researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, have studied diabetic foot complications ever since 2008. They have focused on protecting the foot from overloading the foot sole in order to minimize the risk of ulcers, which may eventually lead to amputation.
The researchers have now completed a study of 114 Swedish patients with diabetes at risk of developing such ulcers. The results show that shoe inserts, podiatry, information and regular checkups can prevent ulcers, which would reduce the number of amputations by more than 50 per cent.
The participants in the study – to be presented at the International Conference on Prosthetics and Orthotics in Hyderabad, India this February – have an averaged 58 years of age and 12 years since their initial diagnosis of diabetes. The participant wore one of three different types of shoe inserts over a period of two years.
Only 0.9% of the participants developed new foot ulcers during the first year, as opposed to the figure of 3–8% that has been reported for similar diabetic populations.
"We found that good shoes and inserts can reduce pressure on the foot by 50% compared with going barefoot," doctoral student Ulla Tang says. "Our conclusion at the end of one year is that all three types of inserts effectively distribute pressure under the sole in order to minimize the risk of ulcers."
The study also revealed that only 67% of diabetes patients had been offered podiatry despite the fact that 83% had calluses.
"An insert costs anywhere from SEK 850 to SEK 1,450," Ms. Tang says. "Healing a diabetic foot ulcer averages SEK 70,000, while an amputation demands up to SEK 1 million in social and healthcare resources. Ulcer prevention is not only a way of relieving suffering but a sound financial investment."
The researchers attending the conference in India are also planning to introduce a new digital tool that they have developed in collaboration with the Västra Götaland region. With the digital tool assessment of the risk for foot ulcer will be easier and reliable. The idea is that orthotist will use the instrument as a basis for the prescription of suitable shoes and insoles.
INFORMATION:
Contact:
Ulla Hellstrand Tang, doctoral student
Institute of Clinical Sciences
Sahlgrenska Academy
University of Gothenburg
Certified Orthotist and Prosthetist
Sahlgrenska University Hospital
Phone: 46-31-343-81-47 END
Amputations among people with diabetes can be reduced by 50 percent
2013-01-17
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
The neurobiological consequence of predating or grazing
2013-01-17
This press release is available in German.
Researchers in the group of Ralf Sommer at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, have for the first time been able to identify neuronal correlates of behaviour by comparing maps of synaptic connectivity, or "connectomes", between two species with different behaviour. They compared the pharyngeal nervous systems of two nematodes, the bacterial feeding Caenorhabditis elegans and the predator/omnivore Pristionchus pacificus and found large differences in how the neurons are "wired" together.
A ...
Study offers new insights into the mechanics of muscle fatigue
2013-01-17
A study in The Journal of General Physiology examines the consequences of muscle activity with surprising results, indicating that the extracellular accumulation of potassium that occurs in working muscles is considerably higher than previously thought.
Muscle excitation involves the influx of sodium ions and efflux of potassium ions. Although the fraction of ions that cross the muscle membrane with each contraction is minute, repeated activity can lead to substantial changes in the intracellular and extracellular concentrations of sodium and potassium ions. The extent ...
Pediatric coding top tips and pediatric CPT changes 2013
2013-01-17
Cyanobacteria belong to the Earth's oldest organisms. They are still present today in oceans and waters and even in hot springs. By producing oxygen and evolving into multicellular forms, they played a key role in the emergence of organisms that breathe oxygen. This has, now, been demonstrated by a team of scientists under the supervision and instruction of evolutionary biologists from the University of Zurich. According to their studies, cyanobacteria developed multicellularity around one billion years earlier than eukaryotes – cells with one true nucleus. At almost the ...
People with low risk for cocaine dependence have differently shaped brain to those with addiction
2013-01-17
People who take cocaine over many years without becoming addicted have a brain structure which is significantly different from those individuals who developed cocaine-dependence, researchers have discovered. New research from the University of Cambridge has found that recreational drug users who have not developed a dependence have an abnormally large frontal lobe, the section of the brain implicated in self-control. Their research was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
For the study, led by Dr Karen Ersche, individuals who use cocaine on a regular basis underwent ...
Cheating to create the perfect simulation
2013-01-17
(Jena) The planet Earth will die – if not before, then when the Sun collapses. This is going to happen in approximately seven billion years. In the universe however the death of suns and planets is an everyday occurance and our solar system partly consists of their remnants.
The end of stars – suns – rich in mass is often a neutron star. These "stars' liches" demonstrate a high density, in which atoms are extremely compressed. Such neutron stars are no bigger than a small town, but heavier than our sun, as physicist PD Dr. Axel Maas of the Jena University (Germany) points ...
Dietary shifts driving up phosphorus use
2013-01-17
Dietary changes since the early 1960s have fueled a sharp increase in the amount of mined phosphorus used to produce the food consumed by the average person over the course of a year, according to a new study led by researchers at McGill University.
Between 1961 and 2007, rising meat consumption and total calorie intake underpinned a 38% increase in the world's per capita "phosphorus footprint," the researchers conclude in a paper published online in Environmental Research Letters.
The findings underscore a significant challenge to efforts to sustainably manage the ...
Viagra converts fat cells
2013-01-17
Researchers from the University of Bonn treated mice with Viagra and made an amazing discovery: The drug converts undesirable white fat cells and could thus potentially melt the unwelcome "spare tire" around the midriff. In addition, the substance also decreases the risk of other complications caused by obesity. The results are now published in "The Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology" (FASEB).
Sildenafil – better known as Viagra – is used to treat erectile dysfunction. This substance prevents degradation of cyclic guanosine mono-phosphate ...
Is athleticism linked to brain size?
2013-01-17
VIDEO:
This movie shows running mice (bred-for-athleticism mouse on the left, regular mouse on the right).
Click here for more information.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Is athleticism linked to brain size? To find out, researchers at the University of California, Riverside performed laboratory experiments on house mice and found that mice that have been bred for dozens of generations to be more exercise-loving have larger midbrains than those that have not been selectively bred ...
Fighting sleep: UGA discovery may lead to new treatments for deadly sleeping sickness
2013-01-17
Athens, Ga. – While its common name may make it sound almost whimsical, sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, is in reality a potentially fatal parasitic infection that has ravaged populations in sub-Saharan Africa for decades, and it continues to infect thousands of people every year.
Few drugs have been developed to treat sleeping sickness since the 1940s, and those still in use are highly toxic, sometimes causing painful side effects and even death. But researchers at the University of Georgia have made a discovery that may soon lead to new therapies for this ...
Critically ill flu patients saved with artificial lung technology treatment
2013-01-17
TORONTO (January 17, 2013 ) - In recent weeks the intensive critical care units at University Health Network's Toronto General Hospital have used Extra Corporeal Lung Support (ECLS) to support five influenza (flu) patients in their recovery from severe respiratory problems.
ECLS systems are normally used at the hospital as a bridge to lung transplantation but increasingly, the hospital is using ECLS on patients where the usual breathing machines (ventilators) cannot support the patient whose lungs need time to rest and heal.
The ECLS systems are essentially artificial ...