Instrument to measure temperature and electrical impedance in the foot sole to assess the health of the diabetic foot

Abstract

Diabetic foot represents one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in people with Diabetes Mellitus. It is important to determine different parameters in the diabetic foot that can be used as indicators that help to prevent the development of this complication. In this work, we are presenting a system that allows the measurement of parameters that will be used for the early detection of diabetic foot composed of two main devices for measuring the electrical impedance and the temperature of the foot. These measurements were made in areas of the foot most prone to ulceration in people with diabetes. The two devices are connected to a concentrator and distributor of information system whose purpose is to obtain and store the data of other sub-systems for measuring other physical parameters, which permits to expand gradually the variables to analyze. Preliminary results indicate that there are significant differences in the measurements of electrical impedance in the interval of 5 to 22 kHz, when we compare diabetic people vs. non-diabetics. Another significant difference was found in the temperature measurement in the zone of the foot corresponding to the first metatarsal. These results could indicate that the temperature and the electrical impedance of the foot could be used as a tool for pre-diagnosis diabetic foot.