NEURO TOUCH: A novel digital device for assessment and screening of peripheral neuropathy.

BACKGROUND

Most of the patients suffering from diabetes develop Sensory neuropathy which proceeds with development of painful neuropathy. This can lead to formation of ulcers in later stages. Currently, available Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) devices take more time to perform and are expensive. NEURO TOUCH is such device which combines four parameters of QST in one unit. Its portable, battery operated and handy device with real time display of results along with data storage and data transfer facility. It can perform tactile sensation threshold, vibration and thermal testing threshold along with skin temperature measurement. This study was undertaken to establish the diagnostic validity, reproducibility and repeatability for early detection of peripheral neuropathy.

METHODS

A total of 317 subjects were recruited for QST assessment with NEURO TOUCH; Tactile threshold sensation, vibration perception and thermal threshold testing along with skin temperature. A subset of 30 subjects in each group were considered for repeatability and reproducibility test.

RESULTS

The mean difference for vibration perception threshold was 0.6 when compared with gold standard device. Regarding the cold and warm perception threshold the mean difference was 1.1 and 2 °C respectively when compared with gold standard device. For skin temperature measures there was a mean difference of 1.2 °C with respect to standard device.

CONCLUSIONS

The NEURO TOUCH device was easy-to-use, compact and provided an efficient multimodality approach which can help for screening of peripheral neuropathy patients with type 2 diabetes.