Tools for Automatic Wound Healing Evaluation by A. Nowakowski*, M. Kaczmarek*, M. Moderhak*, P. Siondalski**, Ł. Woś** * Gdansk University of Technology, WETI, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland, antowak@biomed.eti.pg.gda.pl **Medical University of Gdansk, Clinic of Cardiac & Vascular Surgery, Debinki 7, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland Abstract Final results of the research project devoted to development of a new objective and quantitative method of post cardiosurgery wound healing diagnostics, already preliminary discussed at the QIRT 2014 Conference [1], is presented. We assumed that thermal processes should be effective in subtle description of temporal changes of tissue thermal properties after surgical interventions. To prove this assumption more than 400 patients after cardiosurgery intervention on the open heart participated in clinical experiments using IR thermal cameras as diagnostic instrumentation. We applied both – classical thermal image capture as well as active dynamic thermography method ADT – for analysis of thermal processes existed in the vicinity of the postoperative wound. Here we concentrate on description of technical issues of the developed instrumentation and procedures applied in the research. Discussion is devoted to the problem of standardization of measurement conditions, possible hardware solutions to be applied in clinics and necessary procedures of data acquisition and processing. 1. Introduction This is the summary of the research project financed by the Polish National Science Centre devoted to evaluation of cardio-surgery wound healing based on analysis of thermal tissue properties using QIRT approach. We already presented preliminary results of this project at the QIRT Conference in Bordeaux in 2014 [1]. To conclude our experience here we discuss all technical and practical issues necessary to make experimental part of the project operational in clinical environment. We mention some medical requirements, too, as medical and legal problems may be not less important than technology in terms of successful implementation of new diagnostic procedures. The presentation is structured into parts devoted to: a/ basics of the method; b/ hardware requirements with special notice on Active Dynamic Thermography based on cryotherapy unit for cooling; also on matching IR and RGB camera images; c/ software tools for data capture, here most important are driving signals for cameras and cooling devices and registration condition data; d/ software tools for data analysis as: a proper database; algorithms of image corrections and determination of proper ROI; generation of parametric images; extraction of diagnostic information from multimodality data etc. In conclusion we declare a successful implementation of the method in clinical environment. This is the first quantitative approach allowing clear documentation of post cardiosurgery wound healing progress. 2. The aim of the research Basic progress in medicine nowadays is mainly due to implementation of new medical technology in clinical practice. New imaging technologies open possibility of objective evaluation and diagnostics of processes existing inside the human body. Better understanding of physiology allows for positive feedback leading to matured treatment procedures and constant improvement of medical services. It is well known, that any malfunction in physiology is directly evidenced by changes of temperature, formation of cold or hot spots at the surface of skin, depending if it is due to decreased or increased metabolism and blood flows. One of important but still not fully accepted in medical practice modalities is IR-thermal imaging. Our long lasting experience in development of this modality convinced us and cooperating clinicians that due to such advantages as non- contact and fast measurements as well as decreasing cost of instrumentation it would be interesting and profitable to check new clinical applications of this technology. Natural fields of such applications concern investigation of external parts of the human body, including scars, burns and other superficial wounds. We already applied IR-thermography in evaluation of numerous surgical procedures in cardiosurgery [2], burn diagnostics [3] and other applications [4] showing quality of applied medical procedures as well as the value of IR-technology in clinical practice. Still, one of untouched by quantitative technology fields is the problem of post-operative wound healing [5]. The aim of the research described in this presentation was to prove that thermal imaging may be an effective and quantitative tool in diagnostics of the state of a cardiosurgery postoperative wound. We applied thermal study to http://dx.doi.org/10.21611/qirt.2015.0025