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Medical Infrared
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Did IR (except room-temperature incandescence IR, which is not film-based) ever have any medical applications? I admit ignorance here, but I have heard of none.
Posted 6 months ago.
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"It is perhaps in medical photography that infrared radiation has found more applications than in any other area. There are two useful properties: firstly, its ability to penetrate the superficial layers of the epidermis and to reveal structures beneath them, and secondly the reflection and absorption characteristics differ from that in respect of the visible spectrum. These two properties form the basis of all reported medical applications. Venous blood absorbs infrared heavily, whereas oxygenated blood reflects infrared well; thus vascular disorders such as varicose veins or venous obstruction are clearly delineated . Only the superficial veins can be recorded due to the limited depth of penetration. The sinuous curved stems of varicose veins are clearly seen, and the changing pattern of superficial vessels in the breasts and abdomen due to pregnancy have been mapped. When one of the main venous trunks of the body is obstructed a "collateral" circulation develops to circumvent the problem. These engorged and distended cutaneous veins stand out more vividly in an infrared photograph, and obstruction of the femoral, subclavian and portal veins, the vena cava, and mediastinal tumours are classic examples of applications for infrared photography. Others have reported the usefulness of the technique for studying venous patterns in congenital heart disease and pericardial effusion, in thrombotic conditions and in venous stasis, and for hypertension. A great deal of work has been done on the vascular patterns of the female breast during pregnancy, or in neoplastic disease. The vascular changes in diabetic patients have been mapped by infrared as have postprandial engorgement of veins. The clarity of the venous record obtained depends on various factors such as the thickness of subcutaneous fat, the thickness of the vessel walls and the depth of the vessel from the skin surface."
-taken from: msp.rmit.edu.au/Article_03/05.html
Posted 6 months ago.
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Interesting! Thank you for the info. I have seen some infrared portraits which showed veins with uncanny clarity, such as this one--I guess all that deoxy-hemoglobin is the reason.
I wonder what doctors use these days--Fuji F3s?
Originally posted 6 months ago.
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oldoinyo edited this topic 6 months ago.
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i had made some infrared pictures with veins. here's one of them:
in the photo page i linked to other pictures like that.
my pictures aren't "medical", but the effect is the same. most of my ir pictures with veins were made with a sony cybershot v1 in nightshot and a r72 filter (plus polarizer and nd to compensate for the limitations of that mode/cam). the veins not always are so apparent in the original pics, in some cases they were only visible after increasing the contrast.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Some libraries may still have Kodak's old tech pub N-1, "Medical Infrared Photography." It had examples in both B&W and color, with examples of how to bring out more circulatory detail through lighting, higher-contrast processing, etc. IR was used for detecting abnormal circulation around tumors, identifying circulatory disorders, etc.
Posted 6 months ago.
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This photo is an "implied nude" but in actuality nothing in appropriate is showing. If MODs deem this post inappropriate, please delete it with my apologies. I consider it relevent to this topic: farm1.static.flickr.com/73/238138663_342a5d9a7e.jpg
I've gotten some pretty notable skin penetrating IR effect in digital (various cameras) using a, Hoya R72 filter, and several hundred watts of clear light bulbs. I find that underexposing the photo, shooting in RAW mode, then bringing up the exposure in the RAW processor makes veins more noticeable than I've been able to get out of "good" exposures (where subsurface details are whited out by the diffusion of light through the semi-IR translucent skin.
My bottom line is use BRIGHT tungsten based lights, a shallow infrared filter (I don't suspect that a red filter is enough), and underexpose.
Posted 6 months ago.
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Well, I have found online while searching for a standard IR filter that there are some out there called IR x-ray filters. What is the difference between the two or are they the same thing with slightly different names? I noticed that the IR x-ray filter said that it's main purpose is to cut down on haze and fog in long range shots.
Posted 4 months ago.
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In practice I have never, ever seen infrared photography used in 20 years practicing as a doctor. Nice in theory, but of little practical use in real life. Red light is used extensively in pulse oximetry where red light is transmitted through the tip of the finger. By mesuring the absorption you can measure how well saturated the blood iis with oxygen.
Posted 4 months ago.
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