Thermal Infrared Imaging for Investigating Changes of Vasomotion in Peripheral Circulation

Asger Knudsen1, Emil Korsgaard2, Jeppe Færgemand2, Nikolaj Justesen2, Samuel Emil Schmidt2, Andrei Ciubotariu3
1Aalborg Univeristy, 2Aalborg University, 3Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, North Denmark Region Hospital,


Abstract

Background & aim: In 2017, WHO estimated 48.9 mil- lion incident cases of sepsis worldwide, with 11 million sepsis related deaths. In early stages of sepsis microcircu- latory function is impaired.An expression for general mi- crocirculatory function is vasomotion, which is possible to measure on the dorsal side of the hand using an infrared camera. Thus, the objective of this study is to assess if sym- pathetic stimulation changes vasomotion in the peripheral circulation. Method: To investigate changes in vasomo- tion, infrared recordings of the hand were obtained. A cold pressor test was conducted on 10 healthy subjects. From the infrared recordings, four areas of interest were selected on the thumb muscle, index, middle and ring fin- ger, which were converted to signals, and decomposed us- ing discrete wavelet transform. Specific details from the discrete wavelet transform were reconstructed to assess changes in vasomotion. Results: During the cold pressor test changes in vasomotion were observed. However, there were no significant changes in vasomotion (thumb P=.237, index P=.219, middle P=.253 and ring P=.066). Conclu- sion: The sympathetic stimulation resulted in change in microcirculatory activity in the hand, however it did not result in significant change in temperature oscillations in vasomotion frequency bands.