Plantar pressures during shod gait in diabetic neuropathic patients with and without a history of plantar ulceration.

Background: Diabetic neuropathy leads to progressive loss of sensation, lower-limb distal muscle atrophy, autonomic impairment, and gait alterations that overload feet. This overload has been associated with plantar ulcers even with consistent daily use of shoes. We sought to investigate and compare the influence of diabetic neuropathy and plantar ulcers in the clinical history of diabetic neuropathic patients on plantar sensitivity, symptoms, and plantar pressure distribution during gait while patients wore their everyday shoes.

Plantar pressure distribution patterns during gait in diabetic neuropathy patients with a history of foot ulcers.

Objective: To investigate and compare the influence of a previous history of foot ulcers on plantar pressure variables during gait of patients with diabetic neuropathy.

Introduction: Foot ulcers may be an indicator of worsening diabetic neuropathy. However, the behavior of plantar pressure patterns over time and during the progression of neuropathy, especially in patients who have a clinical history of foot ulcers, is still unclear.

Comparison of static footprints and pedobarography in obese and non-obese children.

Background: Static footprints have been widely used clinically. However, since this measure provides only indirect information about the medial longitudinal arch height, it is not clear if it can be indicative of dynamic foot function especially in obese children. This study aimed to verify whether static footprints can predict dynamic plantar pressures in obese children.

Duration of disease, neuropathic symptoms, and plantar sensitivity in patients with diabetes with and without previous plantar ulceration.

 This study compared the duration of disease, the prevalence of neuropathy symptoms, and plantar insensitivity among subjects with diabetic neuropathy, with and without previous history of plantar ulcers, to a nondiabetic group of subjects. Correlations were made between the neuropathic symptoms observed and the results of sensory tests. Thermal and tactile sensitivities and sensitive chronaxie were measured in the control group (CG, n = 19), a diabetic neuropathic group (DG, n = 16), and a diabetic neuropathic group with previous history of plantar ulceration (UDG, n = 9).

The effects of electrode position on the excitability of rat atria during postnatal development.

Cardiac excitability is determined by the direction of the electric field, which is defined by the positioning of electrodes. However, important morphological and physiological modifications that happen during the postnatal development of the heart may affect the cardiac threshold. In this work we have evaluated the effect of electrode positioning on the excitability threshold of isolated Wistar rat atria (left auricles) during postnatal development.