AUTOMATIZATION OF THERMOGRAPHIC DIAGNOSTIC METHOD OF HUMAN BODY PATHOLOGIES

Abstract

Medical thermography successfully combines effective search for pathologies and absolute non-invasiveness for patient and medical staff. The reliability of diagnostic is based on the stability of thermal imaging symptoms, the main parameter of which is consistency and predictability of relative temperatures changes. This allows to use thermography as a method of effective testing over the pathological processes in the human body for various areas of medical practice. The article is devoted to analysis of possibilities and prospects of development and application of thermography as a method of medical diagnostic. The current state and problems of using thermal imaging equipment to detect various pathologies of human body are considered. Directions of concentration of further researches for development of method and its distribution in various spheres of medicine are offered. One of the most well-known principles of diagnosing pathologies of human organism on the basis of thermograms is comparison of temperatures of symmetrical parts of body or changes analysis in temperature gradient on certain parts of the body. The first approach has several exceptions, the most significant of which is the heart area. Temperature in this area is certainly higher than in symmetrical area on the right side of chest. Therefore, this method is not always possible to use, especially if the pathology is related to cardiological aspect. However, the comparison of temperatures of symmetrical areas on the basis of thermograms in other parts of human body allows with a high probability to detect focus of inflammation or presence of tumors. Besides oncology, medical thermal imaging cameras has found application in otolaryngology, mammology, dentistry and even surgery, where during some operations (for example, heart transplantation) it is necessary to maintain definite temperature of the patient body. Further efforts for improve the diagnostic method of medical thermography should be aimed at improving the quality of thermal images and the development of algorithms for automatic diagnosis of diseases and pathologies using digital image processing and artificial intelligence technology.