Proposal for a protocol using an infrared microbolometer camera and wavelet analysis to study foot thermoregulation

Abstract

Here we propose a protocol to: (i) generate skin temperature (SkT) oscillations on glabrous tissues (plantar foot) in healthy subjects under controlled clinical environment conditions; (ii) measure quantitative temperature fields with an inexpensive microbolometer 2 (MB) infrared camera in a clinical environment; and (iii) quantify the characteristics of skin temperature (SkT) oscillations through spectral analysis. We paid particular attention to the metrology of thermal measurements, with a special bench, including four homemade black body reference areas. We propose a live calibration procedure using this setup while correcting the thermal drift. After all of these correction steps, the experimental thermal resolution () for the temporal variation in each pixel was about 25. Finally, a movement removal procedure was also applied to the thermal images to avoid foot spatial movement over the 10 min observation period. Thermoregulation was stimulated by a 6-min walking exercise test on six volunteers and was then studied using three kinds of scalar indicators evaluated before and after exercise per thermal image pixel. We demonstrated that the 6-min walk exercise increased the thermoregulation activity beneath the plantar foot sole. Moreover, unlike manually placed local thermal probes, the indicator fields proposed in this paper allow the operator to select the exact thermoregulation activation locations and analyse the spatial distribution patterns at these locations.

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

“…In recent years, IRT technology has undergone significant advancements and demonstrates potential across a spectrum of applications [ 15 ]. These applications include cancer detection [ 16 ], sports medicine [ 17 ], foot thermoregulation study [ 18 ], sinusitis detection [ 19 ], arthritis diagnosis [ 20 ], neonatal disease detection [ 21 , 22 ], multiple sclerosis evaluation [ 23 ], evaluation of diabetes-associated vascular disorders [ 24 ], dermatology [ 25 ], pain monitoring [ 26 ], dentistry [ 27 ], surgical procedures [ 28 ], etc. In this study, our focus is on the use of IRTs for EBT measurements.…”

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

“…In this regard, it should be noted that despite the effort being made to generate new knowledge in the field of thermography, either in mathematical analysis methods of thermal patterns [30] or in the automation and standardization of the diagnostic process with infrared biomedical images [31], there are still many aspects that need to be investigated and clarified.…”

Perfusion and thermal conductivity parameter extraction, from thermal imaging, for the quantification of the diabetic foot disease

“…Then, based on this knowledge, an experimental protocol is conducted in a hospital with a sample of patient with DF. A particular attention is paid to the post-processing (including calibration, correlation, …) of the recorded thermal images [7]. An inverse method is then used for the parameters identification of the 1D Penne's bio-heat model.…”