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Post 3 — Pressure-Time Integral (PTI): Load Over Time Beats Peak-Only Thinking

Peak pressure is just a snapshot. PTI integrates magnitude × time, capturing cumulative tissue load—crucial for understanding injury risk (e.g., tissue breakdown, ulceration) and for guiding progressive loading in rehab/performance.

Why PTI is indispensable

  • Cumulative load metric: PTI reflects total loading experienced by tissues, not just the peak spike.
  • Ulceration & injury relevance: PTI can outperform peak pressure when time-dependent damage (e.g., diabetic foot ulcer) matters.
  • Movement comparisons: PTI reveals load trade-offs when contact time changes (e.g., footwear/cadence strategies), which peaks alone miss.

Practical upshot

  • If your system reports only peaks, you risk underestimating damaging exposures.
  • PTI connects biomechanics with tissue tolerance and clinical outcomes.

Selected references

[1] Melai et al., 2011

Calculation of plantar pressure time integral, an alternative approach to summarize plantar loading

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966636211001858

[2] Bus et al., 2013 — Commentary/Review

The value of reporting pressure–time integral data next to peak pressure data in studies on diabetic foot disease

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0268003312002732

[3] Ramadhan et al., 2024

Effect of different inner pressures of air insoles and walking durations on plantar pressure and PTI

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-70312-x

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