BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet)-- Diabetic patients can get early warning to potentially save their limb by using a special thermometer to measure the temperature of their soles, according to a new research published Tuesday in U.S.

    Hot spot on the foot of diabetics may develop into an intractable wound that could cost their limbs as diabetes has numbed their feet, said the research.

    They have "lost the gift of pain," said doctor David Armstrong of Chicago's Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, adding that foot ulcers are slow-healing and vulnerable to infection.

    The special thermometer is not the standard kind, but an infrared one with a tip that digitally measures skin temperature on contact.

    When the thermometer signals a hot spot, patients can put up their feet until the temperature normalizes. The skin heals more easily before it breaks, said the researcher.

    Armstrong found that in a study of 225 diabetic veterans, using the thermometer reduced the number of high-risk patients with foot ulcers by nearly two-thirds.

    In the United States, roughly 80,000 diabetics undergo amputations of toes, feet and lower legs each year due to the foot ulcers.

    (Agencies)