Lahiri and collaborators (2012) published a review analyzing the main applications of thermography into the medical field. They established an index with different medical applications where infrared thermography has been successfully used. This index is composed of:
As Lahiri et al. (2012) mentioned, infrared thermography had the potential to monitoring body temperature in a fast, passive, non-contact and non-invasive alternative. The aim is to quantify one of the values of the body's homeostasis. Infrared thermography can detect thermal asymmetries or abnormal body temperatures that might indicate illness or a potential health risk.
In the last decades, we have witnessed a steady increase in the utility of thermal imaging to obtain correlations between the thermal response to exercise physiology and skin temperature. Previously, we find a lot of clinical studies made about the application of thermography in the medical field. Breast cancer detection using thermography is the most popular and controversial application, but besides we find other pathology uses as diabetes neuropathy or peripheral vascular disorders.
It has also been used to detect problems associated with gynecology, kidney transplantation, dermatology, cardiology, neonatal physiology, fever screening (trend topic during episodes as the COVID-19 pandemic) and brain imaging.
"...With the advent of modern infrared cameras, data acquisition and processing techniques, it is now possible to have real time high resolution thermographic images, which is likely to surge further research in this field..."
Lahiri et al. (2012)
Factors as the thermal camera quality, the standardized protocol used or the thermal image processing software play an important role in the medical application of thermal imaging.
In this sense, the new methods of analysis and more accurate software solutions allows to analyze thermal images in less time and better reliability results (ICC 0.96) than traditional and manual methods. For example, ThermoHuman software has proven effective in saving processing time (86% less time) and near-perfect reliability and reproducibility results (Requena et al., 2020). In addition to that, this software has just received the CE medical certification, a demanding requirement that very few processing software solutions have.
Regarding the most convenient guideline, the TISEM protocol is one of the most popular and recent consensus describing the key factors to take into account when performing human evaluation with thermography.
Lahiri et al. (2012) concluded that with the advent of newer generation of infrared detectors, infrared thermal imaging is becoming a more accurate alternate medical diagnostic tool for abnormal temperature pattern measurements.
Despite the controversial use of thermal imaging in the medical sector, studies so far indicate that infrared thermography can be successfully used for diagnosis of breast cancer, diabetes, dentistry, diabetic neuropathy and other pathologies. In coming years we will probably witness an increase on the use of infrared themography in medical field.
ThermoHuman has had the support of the Funds of the European Union and the Community of Madrid through the Operational Programme on Youth Employment. Likewise, ThermoHuman within the framework of the Export Initiation Program of ICEX NEXT, had the support of ICEX and the co-financing of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Thermohuman has received funding from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), in participation with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), for the R+D activities involved in creating a new tool, based on thermography, for the prediction and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis. See project detail.
