A comparative study for the development of a thermal odoscope for the wearable dynamic thermography monitoring

Giansanti, D.; Maccioni, G.; Gigante, G.E.

doi:10.1016/j.medengphy.2005.07.003

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Volume 28, Issue 4 , Pages 363-371, May 2006

A comparative study for the development of a thermal odoscope for the wearable dynamic thermography monitoring

We dedicate this paper to our friend Charly Maccioni

Received 19 January 2005; received in revised form 1 July 2005; accepted 7 July 2005. published online 03 September 2005.

Abstract

Background

The need of the reliable continuous monitoring of temperature is rising in many clinical applications. Today the use of thermography has become central for instance in the analysis of breast cancer, for the survey of inflammatory processes and certain skin areas during physical exercise. The core of the problem is the development of an ad hoc instrument, because traditional methodologies such as infrared and liquid crystals are no longer suitable.

Material and methods

We developed a dedicated simulation set-up using Matlab R12 procedures (The Mathworks, USA) and P-spice models (Interlink, USA). We simulated the realisation and use of three different equipment configurations for thermography, one based on PTC sensors, another on thermocouples, a third one on specific integrated silicon components. We also bench tested one prototype.