In 109 people on hemodialysis, a wrist-to-foot temperature gap lined up only modestly with severe leg-artery disease

What the research found

JMIR mHealth and uHealth published a prospective cohort on 6 November 2026. Donna Shu-Han Lin and colleagues followed 109 people on chronic hemodialysis. Ankle-brachial readings are often unreliable in this group because the arteries are calcified, so the team watched skin temperature at the instep and sole during a dialysis session with a wearable sensor. Severe leg-artery disease was defined as monophasic or absent flow in the posterior tibial artery or the anterior tibial artery on duplex ultrasound. People with abnormal tibial flow had a different wrist-to-foot temperature gap at the end of the session. The sole gap sorted abnormal anterior tibial flow with an area under the curve of 64.5 percent (95 percent CI 57.8 to 70.9) and abnormal posterior tibial flow with an area under the curve of 62.0 percent (95 percent CI 55.2 to 68.5). An instep gap of -2.2 C or lower had a specificity of 97.6 percent (95 percent CI 94.0 to 99.3) for abnormal posterior tibial flow. The authors call this an association and a screening adjunct, not a test that stands alone, and they say the discrimination was modest. The abstract does not give ages or a sex split. DOI 10.2196/96782. Not medical advice.

Evidence level: Human study. A study in people, but an association isn't proof of cause.

Read the original at JMIR mHealth and uHealth