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Potential of Thermography in Pain Diagnosing and Treatment Monitoring

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Application of Infrared to Biomedical Sciences

Part of the book series: Series in BioEngineering ((SERBIOENG))

Abstract

Pain has been a problem to be differentially diagnosed for years since it has been diagnosed subjectively. Thermography can provide data of pain quantitatively as it reports detail and deep thermal variations. Hence, this method can be useful to diagnose pain objectively. It is a noninvasive complementary diagnostic approach that allows the practitioners to see and quantify alterations on skin temperature . Since in a healthy human individual, there is a high degree thermal symmetry in terms of both magnitude and pattern in the same regions in contralateral parts of the body, subtle skin temperature changes can be easily detected. According to thermography pain is classified based on which part of the body is involved. It is mostly classified in diseases as neural, inflammatory , musculoskeletal, and vascular. Nowadays with the new generation of infrared cameras and very advanced sensitive sensors, thermography has been applied in many medical applications. Pain diagnosis is one of the many uses of thermography in medicine. This chapter introduces pain and application of thermography for diagnosis of different pain categories as well as monitoring the treatments .

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mahnaz Etehadtavakol

  2. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Eddie Y. K. Ng

Authors
  1. Mahnaz Etehadtavakol
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  2. Eddie Y. K. Ng
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Correspondence to Eddie Y. K. Ng .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Eddie YK Ng

  2. Medical Image and Signal Processing Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

    Mahnaz Etehadtavakol

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Etehadtavakol, M., Ng, E.Y.K. (2017). Potential of Thermography in Pain Diagnosing and Treatment Monitoring. In: Ng, E., Etehadtavakol, M. (eds) Application of Infrared to Biomedical Sciences. Series in BioEngineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3147-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3147-2_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3147-2

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