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Updated: Aug 23, 2026

Impedance Pneumography for Minimally Invasive Measurement of Heart Rate in Late Stage Invertebrates
Published on: April 4, 2020
Infrared thermography: a rapid, portable, and accurate technique to detect experimental pneumothorax
Preston B Rich1, George R Dulabon, Christelle D Douillet
1Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Medical Wing D Room 186, CB #7228, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7228 USA. prich@med.unc.edu
Rationale And Objective:
Pneumothorax (Ptx) is a life-threatening complication that can result from trauma, mechanical ventilation, and invasive procedures. Infrared thermography (IRT), a compact and portable technology, has become highly sensitive. We hypothesized that IRT could detect Ptx by identifying associated changes in skin temperature.
Materials And Methods:
Bilateral nonpenetrating chest incisions or needle punctures were performed in 21 anesthetized rats. Rats were then randomized to no, bilateral, left, or right Ptx by either open (n = 16) or closed percutaneous (n = 5) puncture through selected pleurae. Real-time thermographic images and surface temperature data were acquired with a noncooled infrared camera.
Results:
In all cases, blinded observers correctly identified each Ptx with real-time grayscale image analysis. When compared to either the ipsilateral baseline or an abdominal reference, experimental Ptx produced a significantly greater decrease in surface temperature when compared to non-Ptx control.
Conclusions:
These results demonstrate that portable infrared imaging can rapidly and accurately detect changes in thoracic surface temperature associated with experimental pneumothorax.
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