Thermography in biomedicine — Specific requirements

Biomedical applications of thermography has been increased over the past fifty years. As it is completely non-invasive technique its use has been useful in the medical research as sensitive diagnostic method for different clinical and experimental levels. Thermography gives us valuable information about temperature differences of different parts of a human skin. Thus nervous system, metabolic or vascular disorders, cancer, arthritis, pain syndromes, soft tissue injuries and among others virus infections may be monitored comparing changes in thermal differences. As infection and inflammation can emerge in the any part of the human body causing temperature changes thermography presents valuable tool for repeatable monitoring that will not harm the patients. In case of cancer the increase in regional skin surface temperature is related to venous convection and thus also produces heat on the skin surface, but based on different biochemical processes. Despite decades of thermography use in biomedicine there are some specific requirements that emerge every so seeking for good and applicable solutions. The sensitivity of thermography gives us possibility to notice almost every change in the body in their early beginning but the standards for interpretation are still missing. It is so because recognition of the difference between inflammations and beginning of carcinogenesis can be very demanding. Further, existing standards are often susceptible to personal interpretation and thus can lead to misinterpretation. We suggest that some solutions are required for improving the diagnostic strength of thermography. So, further intensive researches in thermography application with creating specific data bases that can be used as algorithms are needed.