A Simple Robust Image Processing Algorithm for Analysis of Static Foot Pressure Intensity Image to Detect Foot Risk Areas in Diabetic Patients

Abstract

According to WHO, about 422 million people are affected with diabetics and among them 15% of diabetic patients are associated with foot problems. Due to peripheral neuropathy, the patients are unable to sense pressure pain which eventually creates calluses. Thus the aim of this study is to effectively find the risk areas which may form ulcers in the foot. The physical components required for this study are a camera which captures high-quality images of foot and a laptop capable of processing image by using MATLAB (The Mathworks Inc., USA). The algorithm which we developed extracts the high-intensity areas in the foot which are actually the areas where the patient exert high pressure compared to other areas in the foot. This method was evaluated by assessing the foot for 5 normal patients and 5 diabetic patients. It is found that this method is capable of giving the riskier areas of the foot and thereby further prevention of foot ulcer can be done. Our method is time-efficient, cost-efficient, and space-efficient and thus can be easily installed in any hospital for diabetic foot analysis. In most of the cases, the metatarsal head region and plantar medial tubercle region are mainly affected by calluses. By proper diagnosis and daily care of the foot can reduce the risk of ulcer in diabetic patients.