Value of thermal sensibility testing in leprosy diagnosis in the field--field trial of a pocket device.

A handy thermal sensibility testing device has been developed and field tested in different centres in Africa and India. The device performed satisfactorily under field conditions and made testing for thermal sensibility in the field practicable and easy. Examination of the results of testing 260 persons, most of them having a few lesions of early leprosy, showed that the expected increase in the rate of diagnosis of sensory impairment in the skin lesions, and so in the diagnosis of leprosy, would be about 15-25% when thermal sensibility testing using this device was added to the other sensibility tests routinely used in the field. Regular use of this device in the field will help to bring more leprosy patients under treatment than at present.