NerveCheck: An Inexpensive Quantitative Sensory Testing Device for Patients with Diabetic...

NerveCheck: An Inexpensive Quantitative Sensory Testing Device for Patients with Diabetic Neuropathy
G. Ponirakisa et al
Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice; 14 January 2016
Quote:
Highlights
?Nervecheck is the first inexpensive ($500), portable quantitative sensory testing (QST) device to measure sensory loss.
?Nervecheck measures the vibration, cold, warm perception threshold and heat pain threshold, and provide a simple categorical output which can easily be interpreted in relation to the severity of neuropathy and hence risk stratification.
?Nervecheck has good reproducibility and comparable diagnostic accuracy to established QST equipment for the diagnosis of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.
Quote:
Aims
Sensory neuropathy is central to the development of painful neuropathy, and foot ulceration in patients with diabetes. Currently, available QST devices take considerable time to perform and are expensive. NerveCheck is the first inexpensive ($500), portable QST device to perform both vibration and thermal testing and hence evaluate diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). This study was undertaken to establish the reproducibility and diagnostic validity of NerveCheck for detecting neuropathy.

Methods
130 subjects (28 with DPN, 46 without DPN and 56 control subjects) underwent QST assessment with NerveCheck; vibration perception and thermal testing. DPN was defined according to the Toronto criteria.

Results
NerveCheck's intra correlation coefficient for vibration, cold and warm sensation testing was 0.79 (95% LOA: -4.20 to 6.60), 0.86 (95% LOA: -1.38 to 2.72) and 0.71 (95% LOA: -2.36 to 3.83), respectively. The diagnostic accuracy (AUC) for vibration, cold and warm sensation testing was 86% (SE: 0.038, 95% CI 0.79 to 0.94), 79% (SE: 0.058, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.91) and 72% (SE: 0.058, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.83), respectively.

Conclusions
This study shows that NerveCheck has good reproducibility and comparable diagnostic accuracy to established QST equipment for the diagnosis of DPN.

Continue reading...