Development of textile-based resistive pressure sensing socks in diabetes mellitus for early detection of DFU

Abstract

Today, millions of people suffer from diabetes that will last a lifetime. The energy necessary for people to continue their daily life activities is obtained from protein, carbonhydrates and fats. These basic nutrients need to be broken down into the smallest pieces in order to be absorbed. The most important of these nutrients are simple sugars called glucose. Cells contain glucose, which the human body needs, It makes it usable with the help of the hormone secreted by the organ called the pancreas. The name of this hormone is insulin. If this hormone does not work properly, the food taken cannot be used as energy. Diseases that occur as a result of a deficiency of the insulin hormone or not working properly are called diabetes. This disease can occur in people during childhood, or it can occur after the age of 20s and 25th depending on genetic reasons. The disease shows itself as Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. Since it is a disease that progresses in a very insidious and painless way, the disease may not be diagnosed for many years. Since Type 1 diabetes mostly occurs in childhood and youth, this disease is called juvenile diabetes in the literature. These patients have to take insulin hormone externally as a lifelong supplement. In our society, 10% of diabetes patients are Type 1. Type 1 diabetes is a disease that is included in the group of diseases called autoimmune diseases and continues throughout life. The immune system, which acts for an unknown reason, damages beta cells in the pancreas, which are responsible for insulin production. When this damage exceeds 80%, disease specifications emerge. The only rule in the treatment of type 1 diabetes patients is insulin therapy. In this type of diabetes, insulin injection is essential and plays a role in saving the patients' life. In addition to insulin injection, a healthy and regular diet, sports and education should be an invariable part of patients' life. In order to maintain these principles and personal care, they should pay maximum attention to these principles. It is essential for patients to keep blood sugar between acceptable levels, to prevent very serious complications such as hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia that may put the person's life at risk, and to provide and maintain ideal body weight and protein consumption, consumption of various foods, excess fiber in foods, consumption of simple sugars under the control of a dietitian and regular doctor appointments should not be interrupted. Exercise should be done regularly every day. In order for patients not to be exposed to advanced complications, they should first take all precautions for their own health. The other disease seen in diabetes patients is type 2 diabetes. Genetic and environmental factors play a role in type 2 diabetes patients. These patients have insulin resistance and insulin secretion abnormality. There are abnormalities in insulin secretion due to genetic factors. Inactivity and desk life trigger this disease as environmental factors. In addition, obesity, one of today's diseases, causes insulin resistance and as a result, diabetes is inevitable. As in Type 1 diabetes patients, Type 2 diabetes patients have to pay close attention to their nutrition, daily physical activity and blood sugar. The person should eat healthy and regularly, and avoid foods and drinks that will cause sudden rise and fall in blood sugar. The patient should also regularly measure blood sugar 6 times on an empty stomach and note the averages and not neglect the doctor's appointments. In both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes diseases, diabetic coma, irreversible damage to vital organs, especially (silent and latent period of diabetes) and in cases where the patient does not receive adequate treatment or neglects the kidneys insidiously and without pain, in the more normal-high stages of diabetes. Bleeding due to intraocular vascular structure can lead the patient to blindness in a very short time. As a result of the deterioration of kidney functions, the patient may be sentenced to dialysis for life. Depending on the damage to the cardiovascular system, permanent damage may occur in the feet and hand limbs of the patients, and accordingly, these limbs must be cut off suddenly. Since the blood cannot go to all organs and limbs in the body in an equal and balanced way in diabetic patients, over time, excess pressure and numbness occur in areas with less blood flow, and accordingly the areas where numbness occurs should be surgically cut. The best example for this is the foot part of diabetic patients. Depending on the disease, the blood cannot reach every region equally on the soles and fingers of the foot and over time, numbness and pressure increasement occur in certain parts of the foot. If the person does not realize this situation in time the damaged tissue is removed by incision method in order to prevent the decay from progressing to other areas comes into play at this point. In the thesis study, it is aimed to carry out a study in order to make early diagnosis in diabetes patients by integrating switch mechanism that is pressure sensitive sensors under socks. The working principle of switch sensors is based on short-cut under pressure. The usage area of switch sensors is gradually expanding due to their advantages such as flexibility, accuracy of data, low energy use and sensor design. In terms of sustainability and ease, the use of switch sensors with parallel conductive layers seems more logical. In this thesis, 3 conductive layers were manufactured and they were separated with mesh fabrics. In the case of abnormal external pressure bottom conductive layers become active and short-cut occurs and in the case of lower external pressure top conductive layers touch each other and short-cut occurs. The data is transferred whereby conductive channels which is TPU coated in order to thwart short-cut during transmitting data from soft sensors to central unit. The resistive sensing mechanism has been adopted due to it is simple to manufacture and doesn't require any kind of dexterity or knowledge of making patterns. It is also overt that there will not be any defect which is derived from sock knitting machine and the budget to set up this system is pretty much lower when it is compared to sock knitting machines. When it is gathered up all these advantages, we can absurb that switch resistive sensing is also workable and effective approach in order to predict DFU before any possible amputation.