Development and Performance of an Instrumentation Laboratory for Infrared Medical Imaging

Abstract

We present an experimental setup and methodology designed to facilitate high-precision thermal measurements required for infrared medical tomography. The approach which is best suited for the study of specialized hardware phantoms comprises a controlled environmental enclosure, infrared detection, internal thermal reference elements, and a comprehensive data acquisition counting chain and protocol. Temporal and spatial corrections applied to sequential thermal images and panoramic projections reduce measurement fluctuations resulting in measurement uncertainty to approximately 25~mK. The capability to resolve weak surface temperature variations, well below 0.1~K, meets the requirement of medical imaging sensitivity. The methodology was validated using wax phantoms with elevated-temperature sources ($\Delta T$ = 1.5 to 10~K). Reconstructed 3D thermal tomographic images of hot spots embedded in hardware phantoms are found to be in quantitative agreement with thermocouple measurements and $\mu CT$ derived source positions. The results demonstrate that the proposed setup and methodology enable high-precision thermal measurements and establish the feasibility of detecting surface temperature variations below 0.1 K, consistent with low-temperature localized internal contrasts ($\Delta T =$ 1-3 K) at subsurface depths of a few centimeters, relevant to biological tissue.