Medical Thermography, thermography, or thermal imaging allows the examiner to see changes in the skin surface temperature by using an ultra-sensitive infrared camera. It is a non-invasive diagnostic tool. Thermal imaging, using these infrared cameras, provides extremely sensitive diagnostic tools for many clinical and experimental areas, such as an alternative breast cancer screening and a diagnostic tool in heart surgery.

Thermal Imaging is not a new diagnostic tool. It has been in use for over the past 20 years, but with advances, it is quickly becoming more advanced and the possibilities of early diagnosis and treatment are expanding greatly. A Thermography base line shows the normal pattern of a person's thermal image. The changes from this normal base line, enable the diagnostic non-invasive investigations. The ultra-sensitive infrared camera shows temperature changes on the skin surfaces. The areas range in many different colors, the abnormal areas are called hot spots and easily seen using these ultra-sensitive infrared cameras.

Thermography is used to show injury to soft tissue and nerves in muscular disorders. In a thermography exam, breast cancer spots and muscle injuries are seen as an obvious abnormality. Medical Thermography is being used fields ranging from Oncology, Disease Monitoring, Veterinarian, and Dentistry. Medical Thermography also shows physiological and metabolic changes. It can show the nervous and vascular systems and it does all this by monitoring abnormal temperature spots on the patient.

There have been many medical diagnostics and newspaper publishing's that Thermography has been documented for use in. Thermography has aided in SARS Fever screening, prostate cancer screening, full body scans, diagnosis of chronic pain, night patient observation, and burn depth assessment. Though the advances have increased enormously, there are still risks of errors. Standards and protocols are needed to be established. Without these standards, physicians may misdiagnose their patients. In order for thermal imaging to be done accurately, the area must be unclothed and hair removed from the area.

With the use of Thermography in falsified injury examinations and court cases,the falsified injury can be easily proven wrong. It is possible to disclaim many of the falsified injury suits using this technique. In court cases, a thermogram is not permitted to be rendered into evidence without the removal of hair and clothes prior to doing the thermogram. Proper training must be had to do medical thermal imaging, otherwise the thermogram lack the sophistication that physicians, legal terms, and insurance companies demand. With proper training and correct use, many errors can be avoided, as well as early diagnosis or disease and illnesses. There are now many who state that their lives have been saved by medical thermography, because cancer was found using thermography that was not yet evident in other diagnostic testing.

by Melissa Hollar

References

Strahan, Gary. “Medical Infrared Imaging Today” http://www.medicalir.com/medical-infrared-imaging-resources/medical-infrared-imaging-general-information/52-medical-infrared-imaging-thermal-ir-today

http://www.medicalir.com/medical-infrared-imaging-resources/medical-infrared-imaging-general-information/58-medical-thermography (24 June 2009)

Ammer & Ring. The Thermal Image in Medicine and Biology. 1995, 2000 ed.