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Investigating infrared thermography for diagnosing spinal deformities
Spinal deformities are omnipresent and difficult to assess and monitor accurately. One of the most prevalent spinal deformities in children and adolescents is scoliosis, a three-dimensional deformation of the spine. To date, the standard approach for assessing and monitoring scoliosis is biplanar radiography using ionizing radiation. Thermal imaging has been investigated as a non-invasive adjunctive assessment method, as the scoliotic back shows a typical thermal asymmetry between contralateral sides. In this project, the usefulness and accuracy of thermal imaging in the context of spine assessment will be investigated and evaluated.
In an ongoing clinical study with scoliosis patients, corresponding biplanar trunk radiographs, 3D back scans, and back thermograms are acquired. This data will be used to evaluate the usefulness of thermal imaging to assess scoliotic spine deformities. Therefore, thermogram processing approaches to diagnose spinal deformations will be implemented using the data from the clinical study, and their accuracy compared to ground-truth radiographs will be assessed. Models will be developed to infer spinal and spinopelvic parameters from back thermograms and optical scanning data.
In an ongoing clinical study with scoliosis patients, corresponding biplanar trunk radiographs, 3D back scans, and back thermograms are acquired. This data will be used to evaluate the usefulness of thermal imaging to assess scoliotic spine deformities. Therefore, thermogram processing approaches to diagnose spinal deformations will be implemented using the data from the clinical study, and their accuracy compared to ground-truth radiographs will be assessed. Models will be developed to infer spinal and spinopelvic parameters from back thermograms and optical scanning data.
The goal of this master thesis is to develop and implement different thermogram processing approaches and models to infer spinal parameters from back thermograms. The applicability and capability of thermal imaging in the context of spinal deformity assessment shall be determined.
The goal of this master thesis is to develop and implement different thermogram processing approaches and models to infer spinal parameters from back thermograms. The applicability and capability of thermal imaging in the context of spinal deformity assessment shall be determined.
If you are interested, please contact Martin Bertsch (martin.bertsch@hest.ethz.ch).
If you are interested, please contact Martin Bertsch (martin.bertsch@hest.ethz.ch).