Diagnostic possibilities of thermal vision study of trophic ulcers

Abstract

Chronic venous insufficiency is often accompanied by trophic changes in soft tissues. The treatment of such patients is long and often, ineffective. Relapse of a trophic ulcer is about 30% and leads to deterioration of life quality and dissatisfaction with conservative and even surgical treatment. Goal. Objectification of changes in the microvasculature and compensatory the possibilities of collateral circulation in the lower extremities with complicated forms of chronic venous insufficiency. Materials and methods. The studies were carried out on the Linsor installation characterizing the biological tissue by the change of scattered light intensity and on the thermal imager making possible to determine the temperature of a point with an accuracy of 0,001 degrees, followed by software image processing. The examination was performed 3-4 times in the dynamics of the treatment process and before the patient discharge, from a standard distance of 1,5 meters. The soft tissues in 23 patients with chronic venous insufficiency of the lower extremities and the presence of open trophic ulcers was studied. There were 21 women, 2 men, the average age was 45,2±3,6 years. The area of the ulcer defect varied from 5,7 cm² to 15,3 cm². Patients with extensive trophic ulcers (circular) were excluded from the examination, because of absence of ulcer defect epithelization during the period of hospitalization and its visualization by the thermographic method. Results. As a result of the study, we obtained a reduced intensity of infrared radiation of the ulcer surface in all patients. To clearly isolate ulcerative defect from the surrounding tissues, we set the temperature range 35,0–37,5 °C and recalculated the resulting area in cm² (conversion factor 22,73). We studied the microcirculatory changes occurring in the trophic ulcer and surrounding tissues, confirming the need to continue conservative treatment after complete ulcer defect epithelization for at least 7 days, and only after that period the normalized level of infrared radiation was detected and subsequently relapsed trophic ulcers did not occur for a long time. Conclusion. Based on the obtained data, we confirmed the thermal imaging method sensitivity is suitable for assess of microcirculation in the trophic ulcer area; the method provides the possibility to apply it for the dynamics of conservative treatment in patients with complicated forms of chronic venous insufficiency.