Methodology to evaluate temperature changes in multiple sclerosis patients by calculating texture features from infrared thermography images

Infrared thermographs (IRTs) are commonly used during disease pandemics to screen individuals with elevated body temperature (EBT). To address the limited research on external factors affecting IRT accuracy, we conducted benchtop measurements and computer simulations with two IRTs, with or without an external temperature reference source (ETRS) for temperature compensation. The combination of an IRT and an ETRS forms a screening thermograph (ST). We investigated the effects of viewing angle (θ, 0–75°), ETRS set temperature (TETRS, 30–40 °C), ambient temperature (Tatm, 18–32 °C), relative humidity (RH, 15–80%), and working distance (d, 0.4–2.8 m). We discovered that STs exhibited higher accuracy compared to IRTs alone. Across the tested ranges of Tatm and RH, both IRTs exhibited absolute measurement errors of less than 0.97 °C, while both STs maintained absolute measurement errors of less than 0.12 °C. The optimal TETRS for EBT detection was 36–37 °C. When θ was below 30°, the two STs underestimated calibration source (CS) temperature (TCS) of less than 0.05 °C. The computer simulations showed absolute temperature differences of up to 0.28 °C and 0.04 °C between estimated and theoretical temperatures for IRTs and STs, respectively, considering d of 0.2–3.0 m, Tatm of 15–35 °C, and RH of 5–95%. The results highlight the importance of precise calibration and environmental control for reliable temperature readings and suggest proper ranges for these factors, aiming to enhance current standard documents and best practice guidelines. These insights enhance our understanding of IRT performance and their sensitivity to various factors, thereby facilitating the development of best practices for accurate EBT measurement.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Best Practices for Body Temperature Measurement with Infrared Thermography: External Factors Affecting Accuracy

Mazdeyasna,

Ghassemi,

Wang

2023

“…However, it should be noted that there are many other biomedical fields, in addition to sports medicine, in which this technique is being implemented exponentially. In health sciences for example the use of this technique has been extended to different medical areas such as neurology [11], cardiology [12], endocrinology [13], and dermatology [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myotendinous Thermoregulation in National Level Sprinters after a Unilateral Fatigue Acute Bout—A Descriptive Study

Cabizosu,

Marín-Pagán,

Martínez-Serrano

et al. 2023

In the last decade there has been a growing interest in infrared thermography in the field of sports medicine in order to elucidate the mechanisms of thermoregulation. The aim of this study was to describe bilateral variations in skin temperature of the anterior thigh and patellar tendon in healthy athletes and to provide a model of baseline tendon and muscle thermoregulation in healthy sprinters following a unilateral isokinetic fatigue protocol. Fifteen healthy national-level sprinters (eleven men and four women), with at least 3 years of athletic training experience of 10–12 h/week and competing in national-level competitions, underwent unilateral isokinetic force testing and electrostimulation in which their body temperature was measured before, during, and after the protocol using an infrared thermographic camera. ANOVA detected a significant difference in the time × side interaction for patellar temperature changes (p ≤ 0.001) and a significant difference in the time/side interaction for quadriceps temperature changes (p ≤ 0.001). The thermal challenge produces homogeneous changes evident in quadriceps areas, but not homogeneous in tendon areas. These data show that metabolic and blood flow changes may depend on the physical and mechanical properties of each tissue. Future research could be conducted to evaluate the predictive value of neuromuscular fatigue in the patellar tendon and quadriceps after exercise in order to optimize post-exercise recovery strategies.

“…Moreover, the far-infrared camera (8–15 μm wavelength) filters out most blooming (from headlights and other light sources) and shadows (as long as the shadow does not linger) by adding different polarizers to the lens, which allows IR radiation to pass through fog and dust particles better than the visible light [ 6 ]. Meanwhile, IR technology is widely used in military, cultural heritage, industrial, medical, biological, and civilian applications [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared Sensation-Based Salient Targets Enhancement Methods in Low-Visibility Scenes

Tan

Zhang

et al. 2022

Thermal imaging is an important technology in low-visibility environments, and due to the blurred edges and low contrast of infrared images, enhancement processing is of vital importance. However, to some extent, the existing enhancement algorithms based on pixel-level information ignore the salient feature of targets, the temperature which effectively separates the targets by their color. Therefore, based on the temperature and pixel features of infrared images, first, a threshold denoising model based on wavelet transformation with bilateral filtering (WTBF) was proposed. Second, our group proposed a salient components enhancement method based on a multi-scale retinex algorithm combined with frequency-tuned salient region extraction (MSRFT). Third, the image contrast and noise distribution were improved by using salient features of orientation, color, and illuminance of night or snow targets. Finally, the accuracy of the bounding box of enhanced images was tested by the pre-trained and improved object detector. The results show that the improved method can reach an accuracy of 90% of snow targets, and the average precision of car and people categories improved in four low-visibility scenes, which demonstrates the high accuracy and adaptability of the proposed methods of great significance for target detection, trajectory tracking, and danger warning of automobile driving.