Instrumental Proposal to Determine the State of Health of the Patients with Diabetic Foot

Abstract

This work describes an instrument to make measurements of electrical impedance over the skin of the foot in Diabetes Mellitus patients, in order to provide an early detection of diabetic foot, a very severe complication of that disease. These measurements must be made in the area of the foot most prone to suffer ulceration in diabetic people. This electrical instrument is connected to a concentrator and distributor of multiple diagnostic information, whose purpose is to obtain and store the data from several measuring sub-systems related to a number of related physical parameters. This computerized global system permits the gradual expansion of the distinct foot parameters to be analyzed. Preliminary results indicate that there are significant differences in the measurements of electrical impedance in the very-low frequency frame, when diabetic vs. non-diabetic curves are compared.