<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that manifests itself by joint inflammation, swelling, pain, tenderness and may involve extra-articular organs in severe cases. Joint inflammatory lesions are associated with higher temperature due to increased vascularity in the area of inflamed tissues. This papers aimed to identify heat patterns from ROIs to interpret the presence of inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients. The thermovisual image sequences were collected from 65 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Infrared images were generated by a thermal scanning camera (FLIR E60bx Systems Inc., USA). Separate recordings of left and right foot temperature changes were performed for 3 minute periods. The temperature measurement was performed at the moment right after cold water immersion (post-cooling temperature) and at the moment after thermal recovery (post-recovery temperature). The recording of 3-minute foot thermal recovery was used for analysis. Automatically identified ROI corresponds to the area of the soft tissues covering cuboid and navicular bone.</p></abstract>

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that manifests itself by joint inflammation, swelling, pain, tenderness and may involve extra-articular organs in severe cases. Joint inflammatory lesions are associated with higher temperature due to increased vascularity in the area of inflamed tissues. This papers aimed to identify heat patterns from ROIs to interpret the presence of inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis patients. The thermovisual image sequences were collected from 65 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Infrared images were generated by a thermal scanning camera (FLIR E60bx Systems Inc., USA). Separate recordings of left and right foot temperature changes were performed for 3 minute periods. The temperature measurement was performed at the moment right after cold water immersion (post-cooling temperature) and at the moment after thermal recovery (post-recovery temperature). The recording of 3-minute foot thermal recovery was used for analysis. Automatically identified ROI corresponds to the area of the soft tissues covering cuboid and navicular bone.

Image Processing Techniques for ROI Identification in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from Thermal Images

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Automatic Control and Robotics

Acta Mechanica et Automatica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease that manifests itself by joint inflammation, swelling, pain, tenderness and may involve...

Image Processing Techniques for ROI Identification in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from Thermal Images

Published Online: Apr 04, 2018

Page range: 49 - 53

Received: Oct 02, 2017

Accepted: Mar 09, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2018-0008

Keywords
Dynamic Thermography, Image Processing, Segmentation, Inflammation

© 2018 Agnieszka Wasilewska et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Image Processing Techniques for ROI Identification in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from Thermal Images

Published Online: Apr 04, 2018

Page range: 49 - 53

Received: Oct 02, 2017

Accepted: Mar 09, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2018-0008

KeywordsDynamic Thermography, Image Processing, Segmentation, Inflammation

© 2018 Agnieszka Wasilewska et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Dynamic Thermography, Image Processing, Segmentation, Inflammation