Pressure distribution beneath sensate and insensate feet

To quantify the differences in foot pressure-time relationships between the sensate foot and diabetic insensate foot, the authors have collected foot pressure data from five sensate subjects and three diabetic insensate subjects during 4 min. of continuous walking for multiple trials. They used an insole instrumented with seven pressure sensors under the heel, metatarsal heads, and hallux and a microprocessor-based portable data-acquisition system for data collection. The peak pressures and the integral of pressure over time during the stance phase from each step were analyzed for both the sensate and insensate subjects. The authors obtained within-subject and between-subject variances for both peak pressure and pressure-time integral data