Abstract
The paper presents a new method of characterisation of texture changes in foot sole soft tissue ultrasound (US) images, as observed to occur in diabetic subjects, using wavelet transforms. US images of the soft tissue subcutaneous layer were taken with a 7.5 MHz linear transducer probe placed parallel to the skin surface. The foot sole hardness was characterised by Shore level. A 2D discrete wavelet transform was performed on the US images to extract features that encode the internal state of the foot sole soft tissue. The global energy feature computed at the output of each wavelet channel was found to achieve excellent delineation between the normal and the diabetic groups. An important finding was a strong correlation, in the order of 0.84 and above, between the feature values that reflect changes in the internal arrangement of the tissue, and the externally measurable hardening of the skin, characterised by the Shore levels, with the latter known to be high for diabetics. A comparison drawn between diabetic ulcer and non-ulcer groups established a change in the order of 122–311% in the textural parameter, as influenced by a corresponding 66.7–200% change in the respective Shore values. Thus US examination of foot sole soft tissue and its texture analysis may serve as sources of valuable information regarding the internal changes taking place with progressive hardening of the soft tissue and thereby help the clinician in taking appropriate preventive measures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armstrong, D. G., Lavery, L. A. andBushman, T. D. (1998): ‘Peak foot pressures influence the healing time of diabetic foot ulcers treated with total contact casts’,J. Rehabil. Res. Dev.,35, pp. 1–5.
Birke, J. A., Novick, A., Hawkins, E. S., andCharles, P. (1995): ‘A review of causes of foot ulcerations in patients with Diabetes Mellitus’,J. Prosthet. Orthot.,14, pp. 13–22
Chang, T., andKuo, C. (1993): ‘Texture analysis and classification with tree-structured wavelet transforms’,IEEE Trans. Image Process.,2, pp. 429–441
Charanya, G., Patil, K. M., Thomas, V. J., Narayanamurthy, V. B., Parivalavan, R., andVisvanathan, K. (2004a): ‘Standing foot pressure image analysis for variations in foot sole soft tissue properties and levels of diabetic neuropathy’,Innov. Technol. Biol. Med.,25, pp. 23–33
Charanya, G., Patil, K. M., Thomas, V. J., Narayamamurthy, V. B., Parivalavan, R., andVisvanathan, K. (2004b): ‘Effect of foot sole hardness, thickness and footwear on foot pressure distribution parameters in diabetic neuropathy’,Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. H. J. Eng. Med.,218, pp. 431–443
Cox, N. H., McCruded, D., McQueen, A., Jones, S. K., Ong-Tonc, L., Finlay, A. Y., Frier, B. M. (1987): ‘Histological findings in clinically normal skin of patients with insulin dependent diabetes’,Clin. Exper. Derm.,12, pp. 250–255
Deubechies, I. (1992): ‘Ten lectures on wavelets’ (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia: 1992)
Garra, B. S., Insana, M. F., Shawker, T. H., Wagner, R. F., Bradford, M., andRussel, M. (1989): ‘Quantitative ultrasonic detection and classification of diffuse liver disease comparison with human observer performance’,Invest. Radiol.,24, pp. 196–203
Jorgensen, U. (1985): ‘Achillodynia and heel pad shock absorbency’,Am. J. Sports Med.,13, pp. 128–132
Mallat, S. (1989): ‘A theory for multiresolution signal decomposition: The Wavelet representation’,IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell.,11, pp. 674–693
Mojsilovic, A., Popović, M., andŠević, D. (1996): ‘Classification of the ultrasound liver images with the 2N×1-D wavelet transform’.Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Image Processing, Lausanne, Switzerland, pp. 367–370
Mojsilovic, A., Popović, M. V., Neøsković, A. N., andPopović, A. D. (1997): ‘Wavelet image extension for analysis and classification of infarcted myocardial tissue’,IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.,44, pp. 856–866
Reath, U., Schlaps, D., andLimberg, B. (1985): ‘Diagnostic accuracy of computerized B-scan texture analysis and conventional ultrasonography in diffuse parenchymal and malignant liver disease’,J. Clin. Eng.,13, pp. 87–99.
Robertson, D. D., Mueller, M. M., Smith, K. E., Commean, P. K., Pilgram, T., andJohnson, J. E. (2002): ‘Structural changes in the forefoot of individuals with diabetes and prior plantar ulcer’,J. Bone Joint Surg.,84-A, pp. 1395–1404
Smith, M. J., andBarnwell, T. P. (1986): ‘Exact reconstruction techniques for tree structured subband coders’,IEEE Trans. Acoust., Speech. Signal Process.,34, pp. 434–441
Thomas, V. J., Patil, K. M., andRadhakrishnan, S. (2004): ‘Threedimensional stress analysis for the mechanics of plantar ulcers in diabetic neuropathy’,Med. Biol. Eng. Comput.,42, pp. 230–235
Thompson, D. L., Cao, D., andDavis, B. L. (1999): ‘Effects of diabetic induced soft tissue changes on stress distribution in the calcaneal soft tissue’. Proc. XVII ISB Congress, Calgary, pp. 8–13
Wagner, R. F., Insana, M. F., andBrown, G. (1986): ‘Unified approach to the detection and classification of speckle texture in diagnostic ultrasound’,Opt. Eng.,25, pp. 743–748
Wells, P. N. (1977): ‘Biomedical ultrasonics’ (Academic, New York, 1977)
Weszka, J. S., Dyer, C. R., andRosenfeld, A. (1976): ‘A comparative study of texture measures for terrain classification’,IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern.,6, pp. 269–285.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Puri, M., Patil, K.M., Balasubramanian, V. et al. Texture analysis of foot sole soft tissue images in diabetic neuropathy using wavelet transform. Med. Biol. Eng. Comput. 43, 756–763 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02430954
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02430954