Infared Thermography

Stoots, Tish (tish_s@erc.montana.edu)
Tue, 10 Dec 1996 15:39:30 -0700

There is an excellent equine veterinarian in Albion, Idaho (Dr. Alan
Clarke) who has used infared thermography for years. To Linda Van
Ceylon, you might contact him with some of your questions. You could at
least get the make and model of what he uses.

>From a lay person description, this is basically how I understand it to
work: For an inflammed tendon diagnosis on a front right leg for
example. The vet will hose down both front legs to cool the surface of
the legs. Then an infared light is directed to the legs and the
resulting heat emissions of the tissue are captured onto file (I am not
sure how they are detected) and translated into a "thermogram." The
scale of a thermogram is temperature, ie similar to what you would see
for temperature on a weather map and the isotherms (band of same
temperature) are color coded with blue being cool and dark red being
hot. You can pinpoint damage by a localization of reds to dark reds.
And in the example that I suggest, you would compare the results for
both legs so you have a basis for what is normal for the wear and tear
that the particular horse has had; the comparison of the good leg to the
inflammed leg.

It is a great tool!

Tish Stoots

(Karen, I tried to e-mail you but my reply bounced back!)

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