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Fundamentals of Infrared Thermal Imaging
Published in U. Snekhalatha, K. Palani Thanaraj, Kurt Ammer, Artificial Intelligence-Based Infrared Thermal Image Processing and Its Applications, 2023
U. Snekhalatha, K. Palani Thanaraj, Kurt Ammer
Ammoush et al. (2018) conducted the study to evaluate the role of thermography in the differentiation of patients with suspected dental abscess or facial cellulitis. The authors used a FLIR C2 infrared camera to acquire the thermal image of both lateral views of the face. They obtained higher temperature differences of 2.4°C in facial cellulitis patients compared to dental abscess patients whose temperature difference was 1.5°C between the normal site and the affected site. The absence of criteria for diagnosing cellulitis is the main weakness of this study, but the association of increased temperature in the skin overlying suspected odontogenic inflammation warrants further investigation. Macianskyte et al. (2019) examined the relationship between infrared thermography and computed tomography results by comparing asymmetrical temperature distribution obtained from infrared thermal imaging with the CT lesions. Initially, they detected the human face edges using image gradients and convolution max. They identified the facial symmetry axis to separate the left and right facial regions and calculated the average mean temperature on both the sides of facial regions. They performed image segmentation of left and right ROI using the binary thresholding method based on neighboring temperatures. They obtained a higher average temperature difference in the facial region compared to the mouth region in tumor patients. They observed a negligible temperature difference in the facial region than the mouth region in healthy subjects. The authors predicted that the asymmetrical temperature zone detected from thermal images matches or aligns with the presence of maxilla-facial pathologies obtained from CT images. However, some maximal temperatures at the lesion site were 0.8–2.0°C higher than the core temperature of 37.0°C, questioning the accuracy of temperature readings extracted from the thermal images. In addition, the evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of temperature asymmetry for the detection of tumorous lesions visible in CT images is unclear in terms of thresholds for both temperatures and spatial distribution. These findings are in contradiction to both the thermodynamics and thermal physiology of heat transfer to the surface.
Evaluation of facial symmetry after jaw reconstruction surgery
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2021
Jade Duchscherer, Daniel Aalto, Lindsey Westover
The spectrum of facial asymmetry can be present for many reasons including presence from birth, due to injury or disease, arise during development and of unknown etiology, or as a result of medical examination or treatment (Thiesen et al. 2015). Head and neck cancer and its treatment may result in facial disfigurement (Gruss et al. 1991; Cascone et al. 2018; Huang et al. 2019). Surgical reconstruction based on free flaps is a relatively safe intervention to improve both the cosmesis and function of the orofacial system (Urken et al. 1994; Papadopoulos-Nydam et al. 2017). Furthermore, fat grafting is another widely accepted therapeutic technique for reconstruction that can address the soft tissues (Denadai et al. 2019). A significant component of aesthetics after reconstruction is symmetry of facial features. Facial symmetry is known to be a prominent determinant in assessing attractiveness, with a general agreement that severe facial asymmetries substantially decrease attractiveness of the face (Kaipainen et al. 2016). Thus, in addition to functional benefits, restoration of facial aesthetics, including facial symmetry, after reconstruction remains an important priority for patients.