Statistical Analysis of Surface Temperature Distribution Pattern in Plantar Foot of Healthy and Diabetic Subjects Using Thermography

Diabetic foot complications are a major cause of concern for diabetic patients as it affects mobility and quality of life. Any computer aided diagnosis system would be very useful in the early detection and hence treatment and cure. For such a system, the surface temperature distribution patterns in the plantar region of the foot of both healthy and diabetic subjects have to be analyzed to detect any abnormality. In this paper we have analyzed the infrared thermal images of 62 diabetic and 20 healthy subjects to identify the temperature distribution patterns capable of detecting diabetic foot complications. The images were taken using Fluke TiX560 thermal imager. Image processing and analysis was done in MATLAB.