Thermography in ocular inflammation

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate ocular infl ammatory and non-infl ammatory conditions using commercially available thermal camera. Materials and Methods: A non-contact thermographic camera (FLIR P 620) was used to take thermal pictures of seven cases of ocular infl ammation, two cases of non-infl ammatory ocular pathology, and one healthy subject with mild refractive error only. Ocular infl ammatory cases included fi ve cases of scleritis, one case of postoperative anterior uveitis, and a case of meibomian gland dysfunction with keratitis (MGD-keratitis). Non-infl ammatory conditions included a case of conjunctival benign reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (BRLH) and a case of central serous chorio-retinopathy. Thermal and non-thermal photographs were taken, and using analyzing software, the ocular surface temperature was calculated. Results: Patient with fresh episode of scleritis revealed high temperature. Eyes with MGD-keratitis depicted lower temperature in clinically more affected eye. Conjunctival BRLH showed a cold lesion on thermography at the site of involvement, in contrast to cases of scleritis with similar clinical presentation. Conclusion: Ocular thermal imaging is an underutilized diagnostic tool which can be used to distinguish infl ammatory ocular conditions from non-infl ammatory conditions. It can also be utilized in the evaluation of tear fi lm in dry eye syndrome. Its applications should be further explored in uveitis and other ocular disorders. Dedicated "ocular thermographic" camera is today's need of the hour.