title: Dermatological and musculoskeletal assessment of diabetic foot: A narrative review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Diabetic Foot Syndrome (DFS) is the most costly and devastating complication of diabetes mellitus (DM), which early effective assessment can reduce the severity of complications including ulceration and amputations. This study aimed to review dermatological and musculoskeletal assessment of diabetic foot.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this review article, we searched for articles published between March 1, 1980 and July 28, 2015 in PubMed, Science Direct, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus, for both English and non-English language articles with the following keywords: "Diabetic foot syndrome", "Ulceration", "Amputation", "Foot assessment", "Skin disorders" and "Musculoskeletal deformities".
  
  
  RESULTS
  In dermatological dimension, most studies focused on elucidated changes in skin temperature, color, hardiness and turgor as well as common skin disorders such as Diabetic Dermopathy (DD), Necrobiosis Lipoidica Diabeticorum (NLD) and Diabetic Bullae (DB), which are common in diabetic patients and have high potential for leading to limb-threatening problems such as ulceration and infection. In musculoskeletal dimension, most studies focused on range of motion and muscle strength, gait patterns and as well as foot deformities especially Charcot osteoarthropathy (COA), which is the most destructive musculoskeletal complication of diabetes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  DFS as a common condition in DM patients lead to ulceration and lower limb amputation frequently unless a prompt and comprehensive assessment was taken. So that dermatological and musculoskeletal assessments are usually neglected in primary health care, these assessments should be done frequently to reduce the high risk of serious complications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Midwifery, Nursing and Midwifery School, Dezful Islamic Azad University, Khouzastan, Iran. Electronic address: mina.arsanjani@live.com.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Arsanjani Shirazi
authors.affiliation: Department of Operating Room, Paramedical School, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran. Electronic address: mortezanasiri.or87@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Morteza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nasiri
authors.affiliation: Health Research Institute, Diabetes Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran. Electronic address: leila.yazdanpanah@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yazdanpanah
mesh_terms: D000671:Amputation, Surgical; D017719:Diabetic Foot / Q000473:pathology*; D005528:Foot / Q000473:pathology; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D053580:Muscle Strength; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular
keywords: Amputation; Diabetic foot syndrome; Foot assessment; Musculoskeletal deformities; Skin disorders; Ulceration