Active Dynamic Thermography in medical applications
In Active Dynamic Thermography (ADT) procedure changes in tested object surface temperature are caused by external heating or cooling and are dependent on the internal structure and thermal properties of a tested object. In most of medical applications the cooling procedure is applied. We used in our experiments different cryotherapy units. One of the best is the unit using expanded liquid CO2 gas mixed with ambient air, allowing to set a wide range of the temperature of a cooling stream (from ca. 0 oC up to the ambient temperature). It’s main advantage is fully aseptic mode of operation, formally accepted for clinical use. The other solutions used to be an industrial air conditioning unit as well as air cryotherapy clinical system. In both cooling is due to the stream of the ambient air (from 5 oC up to the ambient temperature), unfortunately an air filter must be applied and often exchanged to keep aseptic conditions of cooling. Generally, for cooling using a stream of gas the heat exchange occurs mainly due to forced convection.
We have tested our method in following medical applications:
- burn diagnostic
- monitoring of wound healing process
- cardiosurgery
- plastic surgery: breast reconstruction procedures
Some results: