NEW: Detecting hot spots can help diabetics prevent foot ulcers

(AP) - There may be a way for diabetics to prevent foot ulcers.

New research shows that a hot spot on a person's foot can signal that an ulcer is brewing. And using a special thermometer to measure the temperature of their soles can give patients enough early warning to potentially save their limb.

Doctor David Armstrong of Chicago's Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science says diabetics have "lost the gift of pain." They're slow to notice if they have a wound because diabetes numbs their feet.

Armstrong found that in a study of 225 diabetic veterans, using the thermometer reduced the number of high-risk patients who got foot ulcers by nearly two-thirds.

Each year foot ulcers strike 600,000 U.S. diabetics. The condition is to blame for the roughly 80,000 amputations of toes, feet and lower legs that diabetics undergo annually.