Using Infrared Thermal Asymmetry Analysis for Objective Assessment of the Lesion of Facial Nerve Function
LIU Xu-long1, HONG Wen-xue1, SONG Jia-lin1, WU Zhen-ying2
1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China 2. Qinhuangdao Chinese Medicine Hospital, Qinhuangdao 066000, China
Abstract：The skin temperature distribution of a healthy human body exhibits a contralateral symmetry. Some lesions of facial nerve function are associated with an alteration of the thermal distribution of the human body. Since the dissipation of heat through the skin occurs for the most part in the form of infrared radiation, infrared thermography is the method of choice to capture the alteration of the infrared thermal distribution. This paper presents a new method of analysis of the thermal asymmetry named effective thermal area ratio, which is a product of two variables. The first variable is mean temperature difference between the specific facial region and its contralateral region. The second variable is a ratio, which is equal to the area of the abnormal region divided by the total area. Using this new method, we performed a controlled trial to assess the facial nerve function of the healthy subjects and the patients with Bell’s palsy respectively. The results show: that the mean specificity and sensitivity of this method are 0.90 and 0.87 respectively, improved by 7% and 26% compared with conventional methods. Spearman correlation coefficient between effective thermal area ratio and the degree of facial nerve function is an average of 0.664. Hence, concerning the diagnosis and assessment of facial nerve function, infrared thermography is a powerful tool; while the effective thermal area ratio is an efficient clinical indicator.
刘旭龙1，洪文学1，宋佳霖1，吴振英2 . 红外热不对称分析用于面神经功能损伤的客观评估[J]. 光谱学与光谱分析, 2012, 32(03): 647-650.
LIU Xu-long1, HONG Wen-xue1, SONG Jia-lin1, WU Zhen-ying2 . Using Infrared Thermal Asymmetry Analysis for Objective Assessment of the Lesion of Facial Nerve Function . SPECTROSCOPY AND SPECTRAL ANALYSIS, 2012, 32(03): 647-650.
[1] Holland N J, Weiner G M. British Medical Journal, 2004, 329(7465): 553. [2] Sullivan F M, Swan I R, Donnan P T, et al. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2007, 357(16): 1598. [3] Park M, Seo J, Park K. Comput Methods Programs Biomed, 2010, 99(1): 57. [4] Canerva M, Jonsson L, Berg T, et al. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg， 2011, 144(4): 570. [5] He S, Soraghan J J, O’Reilly B F, et al. IEEE Trans. Biomed Eng., 2009, 56(7): 1864. [6] O’Reilly B F, Soraghan J J, McGrenary S, et al. Otol. Neurotol., 2010, 31(3): 486. [7] Zhang Dong. Am. J. Chin. Med., 2007, 35(6): 967. [8] Jones B F. IEEE Trans. Med. Imaging, 1998, 17(6): 1019. [9] Herry C L, Frize M. Biomed Eng. Online, 2004, 3(1): 19. [10] Huygen F J, Niehof S, Klein J, et al. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol., 2004, 91(5): 516. [11] Pavlidis I, Eberhardt N L, Levine J A. Nature, 2002, 415(6867): 35. [12] Marrakchi S, Maibach H I. Contact Dermatitis, 2007, 57(1): 28. [13] Shea R P, Gawarikar A S, Talghader J J. Opt. Express, 2010, 18(22): 22833. [14] Gupta S, Markey M K, Bovik A C. Int. J. Computer Vision, 2010, 90(3): 331. [15] WU Shiqian, LIN Weisi, XIE Shoulie. Pattern Recognition, 2008, 41(8): 2718.
