Marker for Heart Attack Risk Also May Predict Bone Infection in Diabetes

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Marker for Heart Attack Risk Also May Predict Bone Infection in Diabetes
January 6, 2009
By Jo Marie Gellerman
University of Arozona

A medical test frequently used to assess risk for heart disease now may help prevent amputations, according to researchers at The University of Arizona department of surgery and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago.

A study published in the January issue of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery found that a now commonly performed test to detect inflammation in the arteries of the heart, C-reactive protein, when combined with clinical assessment of wounds in patients, may be more accurate in detecting potentially limb-threatening bone infection (know as osteomyelitis) than either test alone.

"What this study allows us to do is to target limb-sparing antibiotics and surgery to the place where they might be most needed," said the study's senior author Dr. David G. Armstrong, professor of surgery and director of the UA Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance, known as SALSA.

According to the Centers for Disease Control more than 60 percent of the nontraumatic lower limb amputations occur in people with diabetes.

"The results of this study were somewhat surprising to us. I think what it confirms is that low-grade, uncontrolled inflammation is probably associated with a lot of problems in the body," Armstrong said.

The study, led by Adam E. Fleischer, assistant professor of radiology, Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, is available online at www.jfas.org.