Infrared thermography for diagnosis of Musculoskeletal Infections
Research type
Research Study
Full title
High Resolution Infrared Thermography (HRTI) as a Diagnostic Aid in Paediatric infections of bones, joints, and soft tissues
IRAS ID
329038
Contact name
Sanjeev Madan
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 1 days
Research summary
Bone and joint infections in children presents as inability to move the limb. It can be associated with joint swelling, but does not differentiate whether the infection is in the joint or in the adjacent part of the bone, or if it is in the soft tissues. Sometimes infection can be in multiple sites in the bones and soft tissue.
Children often require a variety of scans, in some cases, a whole body MRI scan to look for multiple sites of infection. MRI scans in younger children require anaesthetic and cannot be organised easily as an emergency.
Data collected in Sheffield Children’s Hospital from 2011 to 2022 showed that there were 609 cases of osteomyelitis and septic arthritis combined, which gave an average of 51 such infections a year. These infections are a huge NHS burden because patients require inpatient admissions for 2 to 4 weeks and intravenous antibiotics and washout of the joints. Some patients need multiple operations. Those that are diagnosed late carry lifelong morbidity, multiple operations and early onset of arthritis or significant limb deformity and growth arrest. Often there is significant litigation involved and patient can have permanent disability.
The objective is to identify and localise area of infection. Children will have other imaging as routine. The findings can be also applied to adults.
We propose Infrared Thermography (HRTI) to diagnose and localise infections so that more focused and timely investigations can be done.
Thermal imaging is a completely safe and harmless operation, as the camera emits no radiation. Infection, results in changes in blood flow that in turn affects the skin surface temperature of the skin overlying the injury. The temperature changes affect the amount of emitted infrared radiation. These changes will be recorded to localise infection. Patients will be scanned either immediately before surgery, or (if surgery is not required) on a dedicated side room in the ward.REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/EM/0020
Date of REC Opinion
13 Feb 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion