Medical Infrared Imaging

CHRONIC INFLAMMATION

In chronic inflammation, the inflammatory process may begin even if there is no injury, and it does not end when it should. Why the inflammation continues is not always known. Chronic inflammation may be caused by infections that don’t go away, abnormal immune reactions to normal tissues, or conditions such as obesity. Over time, chronic inflammation can cause DNA damage and lead to cancer.₂

WHAT DOES THERMOGRAPHY HAVE TO OFFER?

Currently there is no definitive test for inflammation — the best that conventional medicine can do is measure blood levels of C-reactive protein (a pro-inflammatory marker) and the irritating amino acid called homocysteine

Temperature difference in the skin surface reflects the abnormality present in the human body. Considering the phenomenon, detection and forecasting the change of temperature is the principal objective of using Medical Infrared Thermography (MIT) as a diagnostic tool for inflammatory pain diseases.

Thermography offers a non-invasive, non-contact, radiation-free imaging modality to assess abnormal inflammation. The thermogram creates a map of the skin surface temperature which can indicate an inflammatory process that is occurring or will occur, demonstrated through heat patterns. Abnormal heat patterns provide an indicator that something may be happening in the body that could require more investigation. 

WHAT CAN HAPPEN IF INFLAMMATION GOES ON UNCHECKED?

Although inflammation has been studied for decades, there’s still a lot left to learn about this complex physiological condition. It’s basically an unnecessary state of hyperactivity in the body, in which the immune system’s reserve capacity is thrown into overdrive. This excess immune activation sends the wrong cellular signals to various parts of the body — and can wind up worsening conditions like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and potentially even cancer.

“The connection between inflammation and cancer has moved to center stage in the research arena,” notes Robert A. Weinberg of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

Cancer could, in essence, become a chronic disease akin to rheumatoid arthritis, another inflammatory condition. “Keep in mind almost no one dies of primary cancer,” says Raymond DuBois, provost of the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and a researcher of anti-inflammatory agents for cancer. “A patient almost always dies from a metastasis.”

Abnormal heat patterns may indicate inflammation in the body

It has been recognized that during chronic inflammatory systemic diseases (CIDs) maladaptations of the immune, nervous, endocrine, and reproductive system occur. Maladaptation leads to disease sequelae in CIDs. The ultimate reason of disease sequelae in CIDs remained unclear because clinicians do not consider bodily energy trade-offs and evolutionary medicine. The evolution of physiological supersystems, fitness consequences of genes involved in CIDs during different life-history stages, environmental factors of CIDs, energy trade-offs during inflammatory episodes and the non-specificity of CIDs are all deciding factors. Incorporating bodily energy regulation into evolutionary medicine builds a framework to better understand pathophysiology of CIDs by considering that genes and networks used are positively selected if they serve acute, highly energy-consuming inflammation. It is predicted that genes that protect energy stores are positively selected (as immune memory). This could explain why energy-demanding inflammatory episodes like infectious diseases must be terminated within 3–8 weeks to be adaptive, and otherwise become maladaptive. Considering energy regulation as an evolved adaptive trait explains why many known sequelae of different CIDs must be uniform. These are, e.g. sickness behavior/fatigue/depressive symptoms, sleep disturbance, anorexia, malnutrition, muscle wasting—cachexia, cachectic obesity, insulin resistance with hyperinsulinemia, dyslipidemia, alterations of steroid hormone axes, disturbances of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, hypertension, bone loss and hypercoagulability. Considering evolved energy trade-offs helps us to understand how an energy imbalance can lead to the disease sequelae of CIDs. In the future, clinicians must translate this knowledge into early diagnosis and symptomatic treatment in CIDs.₄