Reliability of a novel thermal imaging system for temperature assessment of healthy feet

• DOI: 10.1186/s13047-018-0266-1
• Publication Date: 2018-05-30T03:25:17Z
• Authors: N. L. Petrova; A. Whittam; A. MacDonald; S. Ainarkar; A. N. Donaldson; J. Bevans; J. Allen; P. Plassmann; B. Kluwe; F. Ring; L. Rogers; R. Simpson; G. Machin; M. E. Edmonds
• Keywords: Barefoot; Thermometer; Foot (prosody); Infrared thermometer; Thermography

Abstract Background Thermal imaging is a useful modality for identifying preulcerative lesions (“hot spots”) in diabetic foot patients. Despite its recognised potential, at present, there no readily available instrument routine podiatric assessment of patients risk. To address this need, novel thermal system was recently developed. This paper reports the reliability device temperature healthy feet. Methods Plantar skin temperatures were measured with (Diabetic Foot Ulcer Prevention System (DFUPS), constructed by Photometrix Imaging Ltd) and also hand‐held infrared spot thermometer (Thermofocus® 01500A3, Tecnimed, Italy) after 20 min barefoot resting legs supported extended 105 subjects (52 males 53 females; age range 18 to 69 years) as part multicentre clinical trial. The differences between right left five regions interest (ROIs), including 1st 4th toes, 1st, 3rd 5th metatarsal heads calculated. intra‐instrument agreement (three repeated measures) inter‐instrument (hand‐held device) quantified using intra‐class correlation coefficients (ICCs) 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results Both devices showed almost perfect replication instrument. ICCs all ROIs ranged from 0.95 0.97 hand‐held‐thermometer 0.94 0.97. There substantial Conclusions study performance volunteers comparison thermometer. newly developed very good assessments defined well In addition reported non‐inferior assessment, holds potential provide an instantaneous image sites feet (plantar, dorsal, lateral medial views). Trial registration Diabetic NCT02317835 , registered December 10, 2014