Evaluation of blood indices as possible biomarkers for diabetic foot ulcer characteristics

Abstract

Background: Although complete blood picture is a routine laboratory analysis and widely used, little data are available about the association of hematological indices with different characteristics of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU). Aim of the study: the aim was to evaluate the blood indices as possible biomarkers for diabetic foot ulcers. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study involved 58 DFU patients who attended Al-kafeel Super specialty hospital and Private orthopedic clinics during the period from April 9 to September 6, 2021. All patients were newly diagnosed and scheduled for treatment. Demographic and clinical data were collected by specialist and blood were collected for the laboratory assays. Results: These results indicate that DFU is largely of older male patients with poor glycaemic control. Regarding the characteristics of ulcers, most of patients (81%) had ulcers for more than 20 weeks’ duration. Most of the ulcers (65.5%) associated with swollen feet and the area of ulcers in most of the patients (69%) were equal or less then15cm2. Most of the patients (87. 9%) present with single ulcers and ulcers were new (72.4%) were painless (79.3%) and non-bleeding (62.1%).