Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29854007›Full record

Trial reportJournal of foot and ankle research2018

Reliability of a novel thermal imaging system for temperature assessment of healthy feet.

N L Petrova, A Whittam, A MacDonald, S Ainarkar, A N Donaldson, J Bevans, J Allen, P Plassmann, B Kluwe, F Ring and 4 more

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readClinical TrialMulticenter Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of foot and ankle research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02317835 (An Innovative System for the Early Identification, Monitoring, Evaluation and Diagnosis of Diabetic Foot Ulcers), which is not on this map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
15citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.4field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT02317835 phase1completednot on this map

An Innovative System for the Early Identification, Monitoring, Evaluation and Diagnosis of Diabetic Foot Ulcers

TypeinterventionalSponsorKing's College Hospital NHS TrustRan2015 to 2016Enrolled105ConditionsDiabetic FootArmsDFUPS
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 47 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Use of thermal imaging in the detection of the diabetic foot- review.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
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  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Infrared Thermography Follow-Up After Lower Limb Revascularization.Journal of diabetes science and technology · 2021
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
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  14. Article
  15. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.

N L Petrova1Diabetic Foot Clinic, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS UK.ORCID 0000-0001-6937-6565
A Whittam3Temperature and Humidity, National Physical Laboratory, London, UK.
A MacDonald4Microvascular Diagnostics, Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
S Ainarkar5Community Podiatry Department, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Manchester, UK.
A N Donaldson1Diabetic Foot Clinic, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS UK.
J Bevans5Community Podiatry Department, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Manchester, UK.
J Allen4Microvascular Diagnostics, Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
P PlassmannPhotometrix Imaging Ltd, Pontypridd, UK.
B Kluwe7Department of Computing, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK.
F Ring7Department of Computing, University of South Wales, Pontypridd, UK.
L Rogers3Temperature and Humidity, National Physical Laboratory, London, UK.
R Simpson3Temperature and Humidity, National Physical Laboratory, London, UK.
G Machin3Temperature and Humidity, National Physical Laboratory, London, UK.
M E Edmonds1Diabetic Foot Clinic, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 9RS UK.
National Physical Laboratory · GBKing's College London · GBNewcastle upon Tyne Hospital · GBPennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust · GBUniversity of South Wales · GBKing's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust · GBPontydysgu · GB

Funding

Department of Health II-LA-0813-20007
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThermal imaging is a useful modality for identifying preulcerative lesions ("hot spots") in diabetic foot patients. Despite its recognised potential, at present, there is no readily available instrument for routine podiatric assessment of patients at risk. To address this need, a novel thermal imaging system was recently developed. This paper reports the reliability of this device for temperature assessment of healthy feet.

methodsPlantar skin foot temperatures were measured with the novel thermal imaging device (Diabetic Foot Ulcer Prevention System (DFUPS), constructed by Photometrix Imaging Ltd) and also with a hand-held infrared spot thermometer (Thermofocus® 01500A3, Tecnimed, Italy) after 20 min of barefoot resting with legs supported and extended in 105 subjects (52 males and 53 females; age range 18 to 69 years) as part of a multicentre clinical trial. The temperature differences between the right and left foot at five regions of interest (ROIs), including 1st and 4th toes, 1st, 3rd and 5th metatarsal heads were calculated. The intra-instrument agreement (three repeated measures) and the inter-instrument agreement (hand-held thermometer and thermal imaging device) were quantified using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and the 95% confidence intervals (CI).

resultsBoth devices showed almost perfect agreement in replication by instrument. The intra-instrument ICCs for the thermal imaging device at all five ROIs ranged from 0.95 to 0.97 and the intra-instrument ICCs for the hand-held-thermometer ranged from 0.94 to 0.97. There was substantial to perfect inter-instrument agreement between the hand-held thermometer and the thermal imaging device and the ICCs at all five ROIs ranged between 0.94 and 0.97.

conclusionsThis study reports the performance of a novel thermal imaging device in the assessment of foot temperatures in healthy volunteers in comparison with a hand-held infrared thermometer. The newly developed thermal imaging device showed very good agreement in repeated temperature assessments at defined ROIs as well as substantial to perfect agreement in temperature assessment with the hand-held infrared thermometer. In addition to the reported non-inferior performance in temperature assessment, the thermal imaging device holds the potential to provide an instantaneous thermal image of all sites of the feet (plantar, dorsal, lateral and medial views).

trial registrationDiabetic Foot Ulcer Prevention System NCT02317835, registered December 10, 2014.

Indexed as

AdolescentAdultAgedDiabetic FootFemaleFootHealthy VolunteersHumansMaleMiddle AgedPoint-of-Care SystemsReproducibility of ResultsSkin TemperatureThermographyThermometersYoung AdultDiabetic foot ulcerPreventionReliabilityTemperatureThermal imaging

Identifiers

PMID29854007
PMCPMC5975531
OpenAlexW2805131455

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.