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Enhancing Diabetic Foot Ulcer Risk Assessment in the VVT Sector : The Added Value of Thermal Imaging in Periodic Screening

Keurhorst, J.A. (2024) Enhancing Diabetic Foot Ulcer Risk Assessment in the VVT Sector : The Added Value of Thermal Imaging in Periodic Screening.

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Abstract:For prevention of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), a foot screening is performed periodically. This involves assessment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), neuropathy, pressure points and wounds. However, this screening has shortcomings that can possibly be overcome by using thermal imaging. This study aimed to investigate the potential of thermal imaging of the foot temperature to enhance the risk assessment of a DFU among patients in geriatric care. 23 participants with diabetes were included and data of 15 healthy participants was used. In participants with PAD the temperature of the feet, the magnitude of the temperature deviation and the number, area and height of the peaks decreases. Neuropathy appears to have little influence on the mean foot temperature, but a small influence on the area and height of the temperature peaks. The results suggest that regions and angiosomes can be used to further highlight temperature differences. In the subjective assessment some pressure and an ulcer were identified in the thermal images. Although it can be concluded from this study that PAD influences foot temperature, the large variation within groups hampers the reliability of drawing conclusions regardingthe risk of DFUs based solely on thermal parameters of a one-off measurement.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:TNW: Science and Technology
Subject:44 medicine
Programme:Technical Medicine MSc (60033)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/98975
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