A comparison of steady state and transient thermography techniques using a healing tendon model

Steady state and transient thermal techniques were used to define the thermal signatures of surgically sectioned and sham-operated common calcanean tendons in four dogs. All limbs were imaged from the lateral side using an Inframetrics 525 system at - 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after surgery. Individual video frames were used to compute absolute surface temperatures and rewarm curves for five predetermined 1 cm2 skin areas. Angiography was performed at each observation period to correlate changes in vascular morphology and thermal data. Thermal signatures and angiograms were similar in all animals before surgery. At 2 and 4 weeks after surgery, the absolute surface temperatures of the entire lateral crus area were elevated in three of four animals. During weeks 6 and 8, the surface temperatures, rewarm curves, and angiograms returned to presurgical values for the controls. Skin areas over the repaired tendons remained warmer and were shown to correlate with vascular proliferation by transient but not steady state techniques. Steady state and transient thermal imaging techniques can be used to detect vascular changes in the area around a healing tendon. However, our data indicate that transient thermal techniques are more suitable than steady state methods for localizing vascular disturbances in tissues. Thermographic imaging techniques may become a reliable noninvasive method to monitor wound healing processes if starting temperatures, cool down techniques, and time intervals for data collection are fully evaluated in future studies using transient thermal imaging protocols.