Current issues in medical thermography

Abstract

Digital Medical Thermal Imaging (DMTI) is a modality of medical imaging for monitoring the surface of the skin temperature. The technology evolution over the last 50 years contributed for more accuracy in the measurements and to significantly decrease the size of the equipment making them portable today. The applications of this technique in medicine are on the peripheral vascular, neurological and musculoskeletal conditions assessing and monitoring, in such areas like: cardiology, chronic diseases, dermatology, dentistry, obstetrics, occupational medicine, oncology, physiotherapy, public health, surgery and veterinary medicine. In this chapter the technique is introduced, with its historical perspective, the fundamental physics, the human physiology concepts, the equipment characterization, the existing proposals for examination protocols, the used image processing techniques, the latest developments and applications and the current limitations and challenges.