Thermography in assessing coronary artery saphenous graft patency and blood flow

Infrared thermography has been used in 32 patients undergoing coronary artery saphenous bypass graft surgery in our department, in order to visualise graft patency and flow at the time surgery. 16 of these patients also had flow measurements with the use of electromagnetic flow meters to one or more of their grafts, which had already been thermographed in order to establish a correlation between the two methods. This study has confirmed that grafts which show good flow by means of electromagnetic flow meters also have a good pictorial graft patency and flow with infrared thermography.