IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0212921.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strong association between vibration perception thresholds at low frequencies (4 and 8 Hz), neuropathic symptoms and diabetic foot ulcers

Author

Listed:
  • Eero Lindholm
  • Magnus Löndahl
  • Katarina Fagher
  • Jan Apelqvist
  • Lars B Dahlin

Abstract

Aims: To investigate whether multi-frequency measurement of vibration perception thresholds (VPTs) can identify individuals with a high risk of developing diabetic foot ulcer or neuropathic symptoms. Methods: VPTs were measured at six different frequencies (4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 125 Hz) on metatarsal heads 1 and 5 on the sole of the foot using a standard VibroSense Meter device in 535 type 1 diabetic (T1DM) patients and 717 non-diabetic control subjects. VPTs in control subjects were used to establish normal values for five different age groups for male and female subjects respectively. Normal values were defined as a VPT below the mean plus 1.66 x standard deviation for each group. Various definitions of abnormal VPTs were tested using either all frequencies, only lowest VPT frequencies (4 and 8 Hz) or only highest VPT frequencies (64 and 125 Hz). Results: The VPTs were higher in T1DM patients than in non-diabetic control subjects matched for age and gender. The low frequencies, 4 and 8 Hz, particularly were associated with the risk of diabetic foot ulcer (OR 40.7 [5.4–308.4], p = 0.0003) and with difficulties in balance and or gait (OR 1.89 [1.04–3.46], p = 0.04) difficulties and weakness (OR 2.77 [1.25–6.16], p = 0.01). The VPTs at the 125 Hz frequency were higher in short duration (≤ 10 yrs.) T1DM patients compared to age- and gender-matched control subjects. Conclusions: Vibration perception thresholds at low frequencies seem to be a better indicator of the risk of developing diabetic foot ulcers, gait or balance problems or weakness of the foot. The 125 Hz frequency, however, seemed to be impaired earlier and it was the only pathological VPT frequency in patients with short duration of diabetes.This study suggests that at least four different frequencies (4, 8, 64 and 125 Hz) should be included in any examination in order to obtain a complete evaluation of the risk factors for diabetic neuropathy and diabetic foot ulcers.

Suggested Citation

  • Eero Lindholm & Magnus Löndahl & Katarina Fagher & Jan Apelqvist & Lars B Dahlin, 2019. "Strong association between vibration perception thresholds at low frequencies (4 and 8 Hz), neuropathic symptoms and diabetic foot ulcers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0212921
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212921
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212921
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212921&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0212921?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Linnéa Ekman & Eero Lindholm & Elisabeth Brogren & Lars B Dahlin, 2021. "Normative values of the vibration perception thresholds at finger pulps and metatarsal heads in healthy adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-15, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0212921. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.