Non-contact thermal imaging as potential tool for personalized diagnosis and prevention of cellulite

Joanna Bauer,Agnieszka Migasiewicz,Halina Podbielska,Martyna Grabarek

doi:10.1007/s10973-018-7232-9

Abstract

Cellulite, the problem of dimpled appearance of the skin, affects approximately 85% of female population in developed countries and is classified as one of the worst tolerated by women deteriorating their quality of life and self-esteem. There is a lack of early, objective, quantitative and personalized diagnosis of different stages of cellulite, thus making prevention or early therapeutic intervention difficult. We have demonstrated the efficacy of thermal imaging using IR thermography in a group of female volunteers with different stages of cellulite. By analyzing the superficial temperature distribution of the body, it was possible to diagnose the cellulite stage. The thermal images of posterior site of thighs were recorded, and cellulite areas were identified for further quantitative analysis. We used a custom-designed classification scheme for automatic recognition of the different stages of cellulite as per the well-known Nürnberger–Müller diagnosis scheme. It was possible to diagnose the cellulite stages with over 80% accuracy. The accuracy can be further increased to over 97% using a threshold value correction scheme. Our work has shown that IR thermography when coupled with computer-aided imaging analysis and processing can be a very convenient and effective tool to enable personalized diagnosis and preventive medicine to improve the quality of life of women with cellulite problem.

Highlights

Cellulite, known as lipodystrophy, edematous fibrosclerotic panniculopathy, adiposis edematosa, dermopanniculosis deformans or status protrusus cutis, refers to as pathological changes in skin formation that is manifested in numerous cavities and irregularities in skin morphology
Our work has shown that IR thermography when coupled with computer-aided imaging analysis and processing can be a very convenient and effective tool to enable personalized diagnosis and preventive medicine to improve the quality of life of women with cellulite problem
We examine whether there is a relationship between our proposed classifiers and clinically identified different stages of cellulite

Summary

Introduction

Known as lipodystrophy, edematous fibrosclerotic panniculopathy, adiposis edematosa, dermopanniculosis deformans or status protrusus cutis, refers to as pathological changes in skin formation that is manifested in numerous cavities and irregularities in skin morphology. The problem of lipodystrophy affects women, predominantly. The number of Cellulite tends to appear more in the region of lower extremities, thighs and buttocks. It can occur at lower abdomen, shoulders and breast. These are regions where estrogen is responsible for fat deposition [3]. The disease is accompanied by a chronic inflammatory process involving fat tissue, connective and peripheral lymphatic and blood system, as well as osteoarthritis–fibrosis degenerative materials of the subcutaneous tissues. The first symptoms of cellulite may appear as early as during adolescence and can affect about 12% of girls. The increase in the number of cases is observed in menopausal or perimenopausal women (nearly 25%) due to a decline in steroid concentrations and water management disorders [4, 5]

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