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DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1734381
Thermography in ocular inflammation
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Abstract
Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate ocular inflammatory and non-inflammatory conditions using commercially available thermal camera. Materials and Methods: A non-contact thermographic camera (FLIR P 620) was used to take thermal pictures of seven cases of ocular inflammation, two cases of non-inflammatory ocular pathology, and one healthy subject with mild refractive error only. Ocular inflammatory cases included five cases of scleritis, one case of postoperative anterior uveitis, and a case of meibomian gland dysfunction with keratitis (MGD-keratitis). Non-inflammatory conditions included a case of conjunctival benign reactive lymphoid hyperplasia (BRLH) and a case of central serous chorio-retinopathy. Thermal and non-thermal photographs were taken, and using analyzing software, the ocular surface temperature was calculated. Results: Patient with fresh episode of scleritis revealed high temperature. Eyes with MGD-keratitis depicted lower temperature in clinically more affected eye. Conjunctival BRLH showed a cold lesion on thermography at the site of involvement, in contrast to cases of scleritis with similar clinical presentation. Conclusion: Ocular thermal imaging is an underutilized diagnostic tool which can be used to distinguish inflammatory ocular conditions from non-inflammatory conditions. It can also be utilized in the evaluation of tear film in dry eye syndrome. Its applications should be further explored in uveitis and other ocular disorders. Dedicated "ocular thermographic" camera is today′s need of the hour.
Publication History
Article published online:
30 July 2021
© 2013. Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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