Carlos Villaseñor-Mora

Procedure to diagnose onychomycosis through changes in emissivity on infrared images.

Abstract. A noninvasive, quick, reliable, and relatively cheap procedure for the diagnosis of onychomycosis is put forward. It is known that a nail may show an abnormal appearance, although only 50% of all the nails having such an appearance may owe it to the presence of onychomycosis; hence, adequate diagnosis of nail disease is needed for appropriate prescription of medication and treatment of the nail. In order to contribute to the process of improvement in the diagnosis, a procedure based on the analysis of medium-range infrared images is presented in which it is possible to observe energy changes mostly due to the changes in emissivity of the nail. As a nail is more affected by onychomycosis, such changes become more intense. Also, it was found that a nail without onychomycosis has a lower temperature than toe skin, but has a higher emission of energy. Fifty percent of the ailments that may a cause a fingernail or toenail to have an abnormal appearance are not considered in the present work.

Study of emissivity changes presented by inorganic and organic soil under drying at ambient temperature

Thermal emissivity can be used to determine the moisture content in soils, but it is strongly influenced by the kind of soil and the organic matter content. These experiments were performed by recording infrared images of the wet soils as a function of water loss. Samples with different organic matter content were wet until reach the field capacity; then, a sequence of thermal images was acquired to follow the different stages of drying process of the studied samples. The emissivity was calculated indirectly by measuring the reflection and absorption of the samples.

Study of variations in soil water potential with the incorporation of charcoal and carbon nanotubes through infrared thermal images

Different concentrations of charcoal and carbon nanotubes were incorporated in different mix types of soil samples, these were previously chemically characterized, and physically grain standardized, then the water potential was measured by traditional procedures, which need to consider the water composition and the soil salinity to achieve an accurate measurement, and by infrared thermal images where the water potential was correlated with the superficial emissivity. It was observed that the organic incorporation increases the water potential but it depends of soil gradation, a biggest increment of the water potential was observed in a poorly graded soil than that observed in a well graded soil; the nanotubes in low concentrations do not present considerable changes in the water potential, and in high concentrations the cost is not profitable. It was analyzed the minimum concentration changes of charcoal and nanotubes in the soil that can be measured with thermal emissivity, and the deepness at which the infrared thermal images can measure, also it was studied the rate of water drain in the different soils, and the ability of follow this with thermal sequence of images.

Volumetric liquid flow measurement through thermography to simulate blood flow in an artery

Encouraged to improve the procedure to measure the blood flow in cases with peripheral artery disease using thermography, that allows to evaluate several arteries simultaneously, it was developed an alternative to measure the volumetric flow through a conduit, it was studied the variation of the thermal energy computed from thermal images due to changes in flow at different temperatures, and it was observed that the measurement is not strongly influenced by the emissivity of the conduit, the ambient temperature and humidity, but that is necessary to establish an adequate calibration of the camera to can use it as measurement instrument.

Location of foot arteries using infrared images

In this work are presented the results of localization of foot arteries, in a young group of participants by using infrared thermal images, these are the dorsal, posterior tibial and anterior tibial arteries. No inclusion criteria were considered, that causes that no strong statistical data about the influence of the age in the arterial localization. It was achieved to solve the confusion when veins present a heat distribution similar to the artery and in the position of this. it contributes to enhance the rate of location of arteries. In general it is possible to say that the use of infrared thermal images is a good technique to find the foot arteries and can be applied in its characterization in a future. The procedure proposed is a non-invasive technique, and in certain fashion does not requires specialized personnel to achieve locate the arteries. It is portable, safe, and relatively economical.