Clustering and classification of regional peak plantar pressures of diabetic feet

Abstract

High plantar pressures have been associated with foot ulceration in people with diabetes, who can experience loss of protective sensation due to peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, characterization of elevated plantar pressure distributions can provide a means of identifying diabetic patients at potential risk of foot ulceration. Plantar pressure distribution classification can also be used to determine suitable preventive interventions, such as the provision of an appropriately designed insole. In the past, emphasis has primarily been placed on the identification of individual focal areas of elevated pressure. The goal of this study was to utilize k-means clustering analysis to identify typical regional peak plantar pressure distributions in a group of 819 diabetic feet. The number of clusters was varied from 2 to 10 to examine the effect on the differentiation and classification of regional peak plantar pressure distributions. As the number of groups increased, so too did the specificity of their pressure distributions: starting with overall low or overall high peak pressure groups and extending to clusters exhibiting several focal peak pressures in different regions of the foot. However, as the number of clusters increased, the ability to accurately classify a given regional peak plantar pressure distribution decreased. The balance between these opposing constraints can be adjusted when assessing patients with feet that are potentially “at risk” or while prescribing footwear to reduce high regional pressures. This analysis provides an understanding of the variability of the regional peak plantar pressure distributions seen within the diabetic population and serves as a guide for the preemptive assessment and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers.

Vasculopathy associated with peripheral neuropathy in gait parameters of diabetic people

“…The causes could be related to the fact that diabetic individuals, especially those with greater levels of complications, present a shorter stride length and a longer cycle time when compared with healthy subjects, thus agreeing with other studies 4,20,22 . Furthermore, with respect to velocity, it was noted that the lower values found in the NG and NVG groups were inversely related to the double support/single support ratio.…”

“…This finding could be one possible explanation for the fact that increases in peak plantar pressure 10 , associated with other factors, precede the appearance of ulcerations and foot amputations in this population 20,21 consistent with the findings of this study, which indicated that points receiving abusive overload to structures frequently bore signs of existing injuries.…”

Diabetes Disease Diagnosis Method based on Feature Extraction using K-SVM

“…They have considered other predictors for diabetes detection, but the drawback is that although particularly the case for small data needs an external validation before applying a model. Bennetts C.J et al [5] intended for exploited a relationship of the diabetes dataset for classification capability. Like many researchers, Bennetts C.J et al [5] tried to employ the data mining approaches in the biological organization for discovering new knowledge which assists to help a medical doctor for accurate diagnosis.…”

“…Bennetts C.J et al [5] intended for exploited a relationship of the diabetes dataset for classification capability. Like many researchers, Bennetts C.J et al [5] tried to employ the data mining approaches in the biological organization for discovering new knowledge which assists to help a medical doctor for accurate diagnosis. A brief overview is provided by Tomar et al [6] of these methods and their advantages and drawback.…”

Classification of forefoot plantar pressure distribution in patients with diabetes: A novel perspective for the management of the diabetic foot

“…Gait conditions, associated to Diabetes Mellitus (DM), are most frequently assessed with plantar pressure measurement (PPM) equipment because elevated pressures are considered as a major risk factor of ulceration [1,2]. The aim of this study was to identify groups with similar forefoot loading patterns and to verify if specific groups of diabetic patients (PwDM) could be isolated from non-diabetic persons (Ctrl).…”