Development and validation of a tactile sensitivity scale for peripheral neuropathy screening.

One of the difficult of the hands peripheral neuropathy screening uncertainty is that the current diagnosis is based not on assessments obtained by accurate and repeatable devices, but mostly on the clinical examination. So, in this paper the authors present a tactile pins-array scale determined with well-defined parameters assessed by non-invasive DITA device (Dynamic Investigation Test-rig on hAptics). This high resolution scale permits to screen the gradual tactile sensory deficit of patients affected by neuropathic diseases. The work has started with an experiment on healthy subjects penalizing their bare finger tactile sensitivity with five different pins-arrays. So, a pins-array scale divided in six levels (grouped in three ranges: low, uncertain and normal tactile sensitivity) was created. The scale was validated with a pilot study on six subjects affected by neuropathic disease. Results show an important role of the scale, supporting the clinical screening and reducing the uncertainty.