Infrared thermography examination of post-traumatic conditions of the hand nerves in paediatric patients compared to EMG examination

Infrared thermography is a frequently employed technique for temperature screening in a variety of fields, yet it has the potential to be widely used in various medical examinations too. This article outlines the advantages of using infrared thermography in paediatric neurology to detect nerve pathology in the hand and compares its measurement results with the traditional neurological examination technique, electromyography.

In order to achieve more accurate detection of the region of interest, original algorithm for the thermal evaluation of thermographic images was developed for the purposes of this study facilitating segmentation procedures according to the anatomical structure of the nerves of the hand. It is further noted that, with minor modification, this approach could be utilised in the future for similar evaluations of thermographic images in another application.

The present study examined the surface skin temperature of 19 children’s hands using infrared thermography. The temperature findings were then used to determine whether a child’s hand had suffered nerve damage resulting from various types of injury. The statistically verified results using Student’s t-test indicate that nerve damage does affect hand skin temperature and may therefore be detected using an infrared camera. This suggests that infrared thermography may be useful in assisting with the primary diagnosis of nerve damage in children with hand injuries.