Fig. 2

a Partial weight-bearing computed tomography (CT) loading frame. b Filtered CT image to reduce noise and enhance the contrast of the plantar tissues relative to the surrounding regions. c CT volumes were resliced using the multi-planar reconstruction tool to align the sagittal image plane with the most proximal point of calcaneus and the most distal point of second metatarsal head. d Final segmentation mask of intrinsic muscle of the foot. e Eight monofilament probe sites (cyan regions) were used to determine peripheral neuropathy and five measurement sites (yellow lines) in the medial-lateral direction were utilized to fully characterize the plantar aponeurosis (PA) thickness. Measuring the apparent thickness of the PA by using intensity profile measurements defined across the thickness of the PA at the measurement sites in the sagittal plane. Distance between the superior (pink)/inferior(blue) marks was taken as the PA thickness