AMBIENT TEMPERATURE INFLUENCE ON OCULAR SURFACE THERMOGRAPHY IN HEALTHY DOGS

Thermography is a fast, non-invasive, and practical investigative method with relatively few reports of its use in veterinary ophthalmology. There are numerous studies that demonstrate the influence of external factors, as well as patient-related factors on the thermogram values. Starting from the hypothesis that the ambient temperature influences the thermogram, our goal was to identify to what extent is the thermogram of the healthy eye influenced when obtained at extreme limits of ambient temperature, that are recommended by the specialized literature. Thermograms were obtained with the FLIR E50 device, in two groups of dogs with healthy eyes, under the conditions of an ambient temperature of 29 degrees C in group M1, and 18 degrees C in group M2, respectively. The additional difference of 9 degrees C significantly changed the ocular surface thermography values, with an increase between 2.4% and 4.06% in different corneal regions. The temperature of the ocular surface of a healthy eye is closer to the intrarectal temperature when thermography was performed at a higher ambient temperature.