Thermal Variations in Osteoporosis After Aclasta® Administration: Case Study

• Main Authors: Wally auf der Strasse, Daniel Prado Campos, Celso Júnio Aguiar Mendonça, Joaquim Mendes, Jamil Faissal Soni, Percy Nohama
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE) 2020-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering
• Subjects: bone mineral density; diagnosis; osteoporosis; thermography; zaledronic acid
• Online Access: https://online-journals.org/index.php/i-joe/article/view/14635

Osteoporosis is a metabolic disease characterized by an imbalance between bone formation and resorption, that results in an increasing risk of fracture. The aim of the present study was to investigate changes in the thermal pattern of a 50-year-old female patient after intravenous infusion of zaledronic acid Aclasta® in the treatment of osteoporosis. Thermal images were acquired in orthostatic position of the dorsal region between the lumbar and sacral portions using a FLIR® T530 camera with a thermal sensitivity (NETD) < 30 mK and the sensor array size of 320 x 240 pixels, with an accuracy of ±2% of the reading. The image analysis was performed using the Flir Tools® 6.4 software in order to identify the minimum, average and maximum temperature values in the region of interest; and MATLAB® 2017a software to extract histograms from images. The results present a good agreement between the temperature measurements and the painful symptomatology of the sacroiliac region of the vertebral column affected by the disease. Thermography might be a promising method for monitoring bone healing process.