(DITI) Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging
Thermography is a medical science that uses infrared images of the body to diagnose problems; often referred to as ‘digital infrared thermal imaging’, or DITI.
Medical DITI is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that allows the examiner to visualise and quantify changes in skin surface temperature. An infrared scanning device is used to convert infrared radiation emitted from the skin surface into electrical impulses that are visualised in color on a monitor.
This visual image graphically maps the body temperature and is referred to as a thermogram. The spectrum of colors indicate an increase or decrease in the amount of infrared radiation being emitted from the body surface. Since there is a high degree of thermal symmetry in the normal body, subtle abnormal temperature changes can be easily identified.
Medical DITI’s major clinical value is in its high sensitivity to pathology in the vascular, muscular, neural and skeletal systems, and can contribute to the clinician’s pathogenesis and diagnosis.
Medical DITI has been used extensively in human medicine in the U.S.A., Europe and Asia for the past 20 years. Until now, cumbersome equipment has hampered its diagnostic and economic viability. Current state of the art PC based infrared technology designed specifically for clinical application has changed all this.