Optical thermography infrastructure to assess thermal distribution in critically ill children

Abstract

Goal: The aim of this study is to explore and assess infrared thermography as a method to analyze temperature profiles of critically ill children. Methods: Critically ill patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit of Saint Justine Hospital with features of respiratory, hemodynamic or neurological failure were included prospectively in this study. A FLIR Lepton 3.5 infrared sensor was used to take images of the patients in real clinical condition, after obtaining informed consent. The temperatures of their core (either thorax or inner eye) and of their extremities (fingers or toes) were extracted. The gradient between the central and extremities temperature of the patients was calculated by taking their difference and the ratio was calculated by dividing the two values. Continuous temperature analysis along the body was also performed by taking the temperatures along a line joining the core to the extremities. Spearman correlation tests were performed to study any relation between the gradient and the clinical background of the patients. Results: In total, 36 patients were included. The median central temperature [interquartile range] extracted from the IR images of the subjects was 33.88°C [32.74-34.19], and the median temperature of the extremities was 30.21°C [28.89-33.13]. There was a good correlation between the central temperature extracted via thermography and the clinical axillary temperature (correlation factor of 0.39, p value= 0.016). There was also a very good correlation between the central and extremities temperature extracted via thermography (correlation factor of 0.66, p value = 1.2 e-05). The correlation tests with clinical markers did not give any statistically significant results. The temperatures extracted along the line joining the core to the limbs were plotted on a graph and gave insightful results into the artefacts present on the body. Conclusion: Thermography was found to be effective to estimate the temperature of the core and limbs of the patients included in this study. Correlation with specific clinical conditions such as shock or sepsis needs further study with a larger sample size.

Date	12 Nov 2021
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Rita Noumeir (Supervisor) & Philippe Jouvet (Co-supervisor)