Use of thermal cameras and improvement of thermal images as an alternative to muscle efficiency assesment methods

Sarcopenia is a muscle disease that is more common in older adults and results from adverse muscle changes that occur throughout life due to old age. Although it can be seen at an early age secondary to reasons such as chronic diseases, sedentary life, malnutrition it primarily affects individuals aged 65 and older. In this study, it was aimed to develop a program to support the diagnosis with the Thermal Camera Imaging method as an alternative to the traditional methods used in the evaluation of muscle activity in sarcopenic individuals. Participants consisted of 20 sarcopenic patients and 20 control group volunteers who applied to Ondokuz Mayıs University Medical Faculty Hospital. Among the inpatients who met the criteria, those who were determined to have sarcopenia were accepted as the "patient group", and the healthy individuals without any disease in the exclusion criteria were considered the "control group". A questionnaire and data collection form including some sociodemographic characteristics and daily food consumption frequency were applied to all participants. Hand grip strength (HGS) and anthropometric measurements, which are traditional methods used in the diagnosis of sarcopenic patients, were applied to both groups and statistical significance was determined. Thermal images of all participants were obtained from the upper extremity muscles at rest and after heat application, and statistical significance levels were determined between the control and patient groups. The results of HGS and anthropometric measurements of the patient and control group participants were found to be statistically different (p<0,001). The evaluations of the data obtained from the analysis of the measurements of thermal images with image quality control metrics were found to be statistically significant (p<0,001). Statistical differences obtained in both methods showed support for the diagnosis of sarcopenia. As a result, it can be suggested that the the Thermal Camera Imaging method can be used in the medical field as an alternative to traditional methods, with the advantages of being a non-invasive, ionizing radiation-free, non-surface contact method.