Thermo = Temperature; Graph = Visual representation
Thermograph = A visual representation of temperatures
Some folks
with long memories will recognise early thermal imaging devices from
their military applications in the 1960's as night sights and "see in
the dark" devices.
Clinical
Thermography first came into the spotlight in the early 1970's, and for
a short while was hailed as the 'next big thing' in medical imaging. In
the early days, the medical community and Thermographers tried to make
thermography something that the body's physiology and the thermal
imaging technology of the day would never allow it to be, a stand-alone
diagnostic test.
Those old enough
to have practised in these times will remember many tests and ideas that
came and went, all claiming to be the ultimate panacea. Some might even
grimace a little, remembering how the hopes of both practitioner and
patient were dashed when the realities of clinical results were applied.
In the early 70's,
investigative medical equipment was crude (by today's standards),
unreliable, and far less definitive than today. The level of computing
in the 1970's reflects accurately many of the medical imaging tests of
the day.
Likewise, few
would argue that huge advances have happened over the past three
decades; advanced CT and MRI machines, Doppler ultrasound, digital
subtraction angiography,.. the list goes on and on. Digital Infrared
Thermal Imaging (DITI) has also developed exponentially with the
accompanying advances in technology.
With the power of
computers available today, and technological advances in electronic
cooling and miniaturisation of solid state electronics, today's advanced
thermal imaging units bear as much resemblance to the thermographic
liquid crystal sheets of the seventies as does the latest F22 jet
fighter aircraft to the Wright Brother's "Kittyhawk".
To illustrate the
starting point of thermography, a thermogram was displayed on an
oscilloscope or liquid crystal thermal reactive pad, and in many cases,
to preserve the information a Polaroid picture of the display was taken!
Today's DITI unit
is a technologically advanced imaging system that is precise, accurate,
and most importantly of all, produces replicable results. It is the
ability to produce reliable, clinically significant, replicable and
objective data that sets DITI technology apart from all other
thermographic scanning devices.
