A Case of Purulent Inflammation Diagnosis to Use Infrared Thermography Camera in Racehorse

Abstract

Infrared Thermography Camera (ITC) have been using for body-temperature monitoring. In the present study, we conducted to find out whether it can be used as an auxiliary diagnostic technique to determine the presence or absence of a disease when ITC was applied to the case of disease in the horse. A racehorse was donated by the Korean Racing Authority as a crippling disease and investigated after euthanasia to obtain the following results. The right caudal legs of the horse was crippled and complained of pain during palpation. As a result of performing ITC, the temperature of the skin covering the gastrocnemius muscle in the right hind limb was 1 ℃ higher than the left side and the ankle heel was 0.4 ℃ higher. When the affected area was observed by removing the skin from both caudal legs, a yellow purulent abscess was observed over the entire fascia of the right gastrocnemius muscle. We also identified Staphylococcus spp. by incubating the exudate of the suppurative region for 5 days. It was difficult to visually diagnose the cutaneous abscess when the horse was crippled, however, inflammatory findings could be observed through ITC, and the abscess was confirmed through an autopsy. These results demonstrated that the affected area of the horse can be easily recognized in a non-invasive manner using ITC, and this method can be used as an auxiliary diagnostic method for early diagnosis of the disease and help the management of the disease.