Digital infrared imaging for medicine - Recent advances in IR focal plane array imaging technology

Thermal imaging has been in use for defense, scientific and industrial applications for more than 25 years. During the most recent five years, however, the rate of change of technology in this field has increased exponentially. As we would always like to see with technological developments, the result has been higher levels of performance, improved ease of use, and lower cost. In the field of medical thermography, the most significant new technological achievement is the commercialization of the staring focal plane array (FPA) detector and its incorporation in a calibrated thermography system. This paper describes the development of the ThermaCAM(R) calibrated digital FPA thermography system and its application to the technique of thermal coronary angiography (TCA). The use of the ThermaCAM for TCA in a multiroom cardiac surgical suite is also described.