Implementation of an optical-thermal imaging mobile scanner for diabetic foot ulcers monitoring

Assessment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) healing has remained a challenge for clinicians due to the complex physiological process involved in each stage of its healing process. Non-invasive imaging technologies represent a potential complementary tool since they can be used to provide information about wounds that cannot be detected by the human eye. In a recent study, we used mobile-based diffuse optical and thermal imaging mobile devices to differentiate healing cases and, to detect early signs of inflammation/infection. The optical imaging mobile device used is a validated custom-made near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging scanner that acquires diffuse reflectance images at different wavelengths and can estimate tissue oxygenation parameters by using the Modified Beer-Lambert Law (MBLL), and a commercial mobile thermal camera as an independent device. This research hypothesizes that by combining both, optical and thermal imaging technologies into one single mobile imaging scanner, the presence and progression of DFUs can be monitored by simultaneous measurements. This approach is a potential tool for telemedicine and self-care schemes. Herein, the prototype of an optical-thermal imaging scanner was developed and implemented by integrating the custom-made NIRS imaging scanner with a thermal sensor, to track physiological parameters related to tissue oxygenation and temperature. Currently, a comparison between the thermal camera integrated, against a commercial thermal camera is performed to validate the thermal measurements via in-vivo studies on control subjects. This will be followed by pilot studies on DFU cases to validate the functionality and accuracy of the proposed optical-thermal mobile scanner to obtain physiological measurements.