Principal Component Analysis of Dynamic Thermography Data from Pregnant and Non-Pregnant Women

Thermal imaging of the fetus: An empirical feasibility study

“…Apart from that, before any DITI application, an acclimatisation period is required. In a study with pregnant and non-pregnant women, where an hour of thermographic data was recorded, the authors stated that although the usual acclimatisation period is between 15-20 minutes, temperature variations were continued over this period of time [15]. As shown for the first time in this study, fetal movements can have a direct effect in the recorded thermal patterns.…”

“…As shown for the first time in this study, fetal movements can have a direct effect in the recorded thermal patterns. Therefore, these continuous temperature variations, reported by Falzon et al 2018 [15], may be related to internal adaptations due to fetal movements, which altered the patterns of the transferred heat to the maternal abdomen and therefore the superficial thermal prints. This might be particularly relevant, as in the study concerned, pregnant women at their 28-30 weeks of gestation took part [15].…”

“…Therefore, these continuous temperature variations, reported by Falzon et al 2018 [15], may be related to internal adaptations due to fetal movements, which altered the patterns of the transferred heat to the maternal abdomen and therefore the superficial thermal prints. This might be particularly relevant, as in the study concerned, pregnant women at their 28-30 weeks of gestation took part [15]. The number of movements, their frequency and strength increase and reach their maximum between 28-32 weeks [35].…”

“…DITI is highly dependent on the environmental conditions, such as the airflow, the temperature and the relative humidity of the room or place of application [9]. Most previous studies using DITI have been performed in controlled environments with the temperature ranging from 18˚C to 25.5˚C [4][5][6][7]14,15] and the relative humidity between 50%-60% [5,6] The results of the current study showed that the average room temperature had a very strong and strong statistically significant correlation with the minimum recorded temperature (T min ) of some ROIs. This means that the higher the room temperature the higher the recorded T min values of some areas.…”

“…Since DITI is both non-contact and totally non-invasive, it is potentially an optimal tool for use in maternal and neonatal care. However, to date applications in pregnant women have been restricted to the identification of temperature profiles in different parts of the body [4,5,14,15] and placental location [10,11].…”