Diabetic peripheral neuropathy affects up to 50% of people with diabetes and results in significant morbidity and mortality resulting in significant healthcare costs. There is increasing evidence that small unmyelinated nerve fibres that mediate pain and thermal sensitivity (C-fibres) are involved early in the development of neuropathy in type 2 diabetes. A heating test (combined with blood flow imaging) has been developed to asses increases in skin blood flow at the site of heating and also increases in blood flow in the surrounding skin due to axon reflex flare. It has been found that the flare response, in terms of flare area surrounding a heated central region, is impaired in patients with early neuropathy compared with those without neuropathy. The LDI-Flare test originally developed by Krishnan et al has been refined for speed and sensitivity by Vas et al by pre-warming patients and increasing the stimulus temperature from 44\u00b0C to 47\u00b0C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-7963","m_applications","type-m_applications","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n