A Matlab based interface for infrared thermographic diagnosis of pediatric musculoskeletal injuries

Abstract

Background and objectiveOne of the main causes of emergency medical consultations done by children are musculoskeletal injures. In such cases, radiological tests are a common practice to diagnose the gravity of the trauma and determine the likely existence of a fracture. In order to avoid, or at least to reduce, the use of ionizing radiations with children, the infrared thermographic technique was studied as an alternative solution, since it is a non-harmful, non-invasive and non-contact technique, without excessive technical complications and moderate cost when compared to other types of imaging tools. MethodologyWhen an infrared thermographic diagnostic test is performed, and once the pictures of the studied limb are taken accordingly to the established methodology, an imaging post-processing protocol becomes necessary to make a correct interpretation and diagnosis. Aimed at performing the analysis in situ and in real time, in this work we present a software tool based on a Matlab interface. The software programming is based on the results obtained in clinical tests, where several variables were took into consideration. The program is able to determine the probability of fracture basing the diagnosis on a non-linear cataloguing approach, using decision trees. ResultsThe tool implemented allows to diagnose musculoskeletal injures in children shortly after taking the infrared thermographic picture. ConclusionsThe diagnosis tool provides the means for the interpretation of the IT pictures, allows to obtain a diagnosis in a fast way, and may help to decrease the radiation doses in children.