Abstract #0552

Weaver J, Miller T, Doyley M, Perrinez P, Wang H, Cheung Y, Wrobel J, Comi R, Kennedy F, Paulsen K

Damage done by the impact of walking on the heel fat pad was evaluated by comparing the shear modulus in the regions where the impacts of walking is highest to the shear modulus where there is little impact. Four diabetic subjects and 7 normal subjects were evaluated. In the diabetic subjects, the region under the calcaneus was significantly softer than peripheral regions indicating that the fat pads were damaged from walking. There was no indication of damage in the normals. The damage observed in the diabetic subjects increased monotonically with the number of years the subject has had diabetes.