'Optic Ped Scan': an alternative inexpensive technique to study plantar arches and foot pressure sites

摘要

Early diagnosis and management of foot arch abnormalities would reduce future complications. Conventional, mainly non-objective clinical examinations were not evidence based and somehow due to expert ideas with high inter rater differences. In new Pedscope we made the Optic Ped Scan (OPS), patient stand on a Resin made 5-10 mm Plexiglass while the image of the whole plantar surface was digitally scanned, showing the pressure sites in different colours based on a Ratio-Metric Scale. Any off-line measurement or relative pressure ratios could be easily studied. The outcome of the OPS is an image file resulting from the subject's body weight on emptying the capillaries of plantar skin which causes the colours to change. These physiological changes of plantar colour could be amplified when passing though the clear, hardly elastic form of plexiglass (Acrylic or methyl methacrylate Resin or Poly methyl 2-methylpropenoate - PMMA), we prepared in Arak Petrochemical Company. We studied 2007, school age students as a pilot study of the technique in Arak schools and measured: Foot Length, Axis Length, Heel Expanse, Mid-foot Expanse, Forefoot Expanse, Arch Length (medial), Arch Depth, Hallux Distance and relative pressures of 10 defined zones. Students had 28.15% Flat Foot, 1.54% Pes Cavus, 11.01% Hallux Valgus, 0.64% Hallux Varus, 0.04% Convexus and 0.04% complex/various deformities. OPS worked properly for both diagnosis and measurements. The new technique could be several times cheaper than other techniques.