e294 The evaluation of burn wound depth is of crucial importance for the correct choice of treatment. 1,2 Besides being imperfect, the most frequently used clinical evaluation is based mostly on qualitative visual inspection; however, several, at least partly, quantita- tive diagnostic methods have been proposed recently. Monstrey et al 3 have published an up-to-date review of methods used in the evaluation of burn depth. The proposed classification of diagnostic methods is 1) clinical evaluation; 2) histopathology of local biopsy as a reference method; 3) methods based on the evaluation of microcirculation in the burn wound, eg, thermography, laser Doppler imaging, and other methods 4,5 ; and 4) a group of research methods, such as optical, medical ultrasonography and photoacoustic and nuclear imaging. 6,7 Since 2008, articles devoted to the development of the laser Doppler imaging method have been the most frequently published. 8–11 This article is devoted to the new method called active dynamic thermography (ADT), allowing quantitative evaluation of a burn wound depth based on tissue thermal properties changed by burn. The research teams at the Biomedical Engineer- ing Department of Gdansk University of Technology and the Plastic Surgery Department of Gdansk Med- ical University have been working together in the field of infrared (IR) thermal imaging for the eval- uation of burn wound depths for many years. 12–14 Previous publications by this group have evaluated the use of static thermography (ST) and ADT, the latter with the use of heat excitation. 13,14 The results of this research have concluded that the ADT tech- nique is a useful, quantitative method for evaluation of burn wound depth, enabling the prediction ability of self-healing within 3 weeks. This is an important modern criterion in selecting the correct method of treatment. In particular, it is important to highlight the simplicity of the ADT method, short examina- tion time, noncontact, and fully aseptic procedure. 15 Recently, we discussed the diagnostic value of ST, 12 where the basic figure of merit, ΔT, namely Copyright © 2014 by the American Burn Association 1559-047X/2014 DOI: 10.1097/BCR.0000000000000059 The aim of this study was to find the relationship between active dynamic thermography (ADT) with cold excitation and burn depth. This new modality of evaluation of burns seems to be an attractive proposal for quantitative classification, allowing proper choice of burn wound treatment: conservative or surgical, especially compared with static thermography. The work was an in vivo experiment on domestic pigs, and a small number of patients were also diagnosed as part of the study. Statistical analysis showed a high correlation between the ADT synthetic parameter—thermal time constant, τ—and the classification of burn wounds that were predicted to heal within 3 weeks and so were treated conservatively and those that were predicted to not heal within 3 weeks and so were surgically treated. The results of the study show an accuracy of 60.7% for clinical evaluation, 69.6% for static thermography, 83.0% for ADT, and 84.0% for histopathologic assessment. The authors have concluded that the ADT method with cold excitation is suitable for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of burn depth. (J Burn Care Res 2014;35:e294–e303) From the *Department of Plastic Surgery, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland; †Department of Biomedical Engineering, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland; ‡Department of Patho- morphology, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland; and §West Pomeranian Burns and Plastic Surgery Center, Gryfice, Poland. Address correspondence to Alicja Renkielska, MD, Department of Plastic Surgery, Medical University of Gdansk, Marii Sklodowskiej-Curie 3A, 80 210 Gdansk, Poland. Active Dynamic Infrared Thermal Imaging in Burn Depth Evaluation Alicja Renkielska, MD, DSc,* Mariusz Kaczmarek, PhD, El. Eng,† Antoni Nowakowski, PhD, DSc, El. Eng,† Jacek Grudziński, MD, PhD,* Piotr Czapiewski, MD, PhD,‡ Andrzej Krajewski, MD, PhD,§ Irena Grobelny, MD, PhD* ORIGINAL ARTICLE