Pioneering progress in infrared imaging in medicine

Abstract

The measurement of temperature particularly with reference to medicine, had a slow beginning with the primitive thermometers of the sixteenth century. Dr Carl Wunderlich, a great pioneer in clinical thermometry showed the real significance of the use of temperature measurements for both diagnoses of fever and also for monitoring the course of temperature in relation to the medical condition of his patients. The radiometric determination of human body temperature is however more modern. Remote sensing of infrared radiation became of practical value in the 1940s and has continued to develop steadily since 1960. Modern high speed and high resolution camera systems have now reached a dramatic level of performance at more modest costs, which medicine has now the opportunity to employ as non-invasive and quantifiable imaging. This has applications in many areas of medicine both for diagnostics and monitoring treatment. In recent years, the acute threat of pandemic infection has increased, heightened by today’s every expanding world travel. Special interest has been shown in the potential of thermal imaging for airport and travel screening. This is effect where Dr Wunderlich’s studies began, and it has yet to be proven that the technique can be responsibly employed for efficient screening of large numbers of the travelling public.

Keywords:

• thermography
• human body temperature
• history of thermal imaging