Comparison of Plantar Pressure in Patient with Hallux Valgus and Healthy Control and Effect of Demographic Characteristic on it: A Pixel Based Approach

Abstract: There is no detailed information available about the differences in plantar pressure distribution between hallux valgus and healthy feet. The goal of this study was to evaluate the plantar pressure of the left and right feet in hallux valgus patients against healthy controls. The current research also looks at the impact of demographic factors on plantar pressure distribution. Furthermore, a correlation between the hallux valgus foot and radiographic measures such as the hallux valgus angle and intermetatarsal angle is investigated. There were 50 patients with hallux valgus (HV group) and 55 healthy matched controls (C group) who did not have hallux valgus in the research. Age, height, weight, and body mass index did not differ significantly between the HV and C groups. The CAD WALK open access database is used to obtain dynamic plantar pressure measurements. Using manual masking, the plantar region of the foot was divided into eight sections. When compared to healthy controls, the hallux valgus foot has three abnormal pressure patterns in the left foot and two abnormal plantar pressure patterns in the right foot in various regions. The comparison is done using the region of interest's peak pixel intensity. According to our findings, when the hallux valgus angle increases, plantar pressure characteristics change from the medial to lateral side of the forefoot. Demographic characteristics like age, height, and shoe size were discovered to be important considerations during a plantar pressure study. We may conclude from our findings that manual masking on 2D plantar pressure footprints is quite reliable. Keywords: hallux valgus deformity, hallux valgus angle, intermetatarsal angle, peak plantar pressure, plantar pressure distribution