Review on plantar data analysis for disease diagnosis

Force distribution on foot surface allows to understand the human mechanical behavior, providing detailed information for the evaluation of foot alterations. In diagnosis for diseases related to plantar pathologies, there are many devices for plantar pressure measurement, and corresponding algorithms for data analyzing, providing medical tools for assisting in treatment, early detection, and the development of preventive strategies. In medicine, use of computational intelligence is increasing, making the diagnostic processes faster and more accurate. Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) can handle large amounts of data to improve decision-making, helping to prevent the deterioration of people's health. Numerous approaches have been applied over the past few decades to solve medical problems such as hepatitis, diabetes, liver disease, pathological gait, and plantar diseases, among others. This paper presents the developments reported in the literature for detecting diseases through plantar pressure data and the corresponding algorithms for its analysis and diagnosis, using different electronic measurements systems. Finally, we present a discussion about the future work required to improve in the field of plantar pressure diagnosis algorithms using different approaches suggested by the authors as potential candidates. In this sense, hybrid systems which include fuzzy concepts are the most promising methodology. (C) 2018 Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.