A study by Chicago's Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine indicates racial statistics for amputations have not evened out, despite the total number of amputations in northern Illinois dropping in the past 20 years, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday.

"It's very troubling. Medical advances make leaps and bounds, but it doesn't always get translated to everybody," said Dr. William Pearce, an author of the study published Saturday in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Pearce and fellow researcher Joseph Feinglass learned that people residing in mostly black areas of Chicago are five times more prone to having a leg or foot removed than people living in mostly white areas.

It is reported that increased health problems and low-quality healthcare are partially to blame for higher amputations among blacks.