The application of thermal image analysis to diabetic foot diagnosis

Due to the deficiency of peripheral sensory and autonomic nerves and the complication of peripheral vascular disease, the patients with diabetes are prone to induce the ulcers on their limbs. If the ulcer formation or poor circulation area can be detected as early as possible, the occurrence of amputation morbidity may be reduced. In this study, the thermal image analysis is applied to characterize the superficial circulation of foot. Nine subjects with or without diabetes needing skin graft are recruited and divided into control group and experimental group. Both static and dynamic thermal images are acquired for analysis. The temperature difference percentage, Karhunen-Loéve transform, and thermal recovery tendency analysis are employed for thermal image analysis. From the results, it is shown that the area of poor circulation around the wound in the patients with diabetes may be significantly revealed using Karhunen-Loéve transform and thermal recovery tendency analysis. The thermal recovery tendency analysis needs shorter computation time and is a good parameter to early detect the ulcer formation.