Abstract
Using the thermal image quantitative method, we investigated the effects of hospitalization on patients with diabetes after taking thermal images of patient dorsa. Seventeen patients (10 males and 7 females) were hospitalized for 3 days each in the study. Their average age was 62.6 years (SD 7.9). Subjects underwent integrative medical care such as Okada purifying therapy (OPT), eating a diet of foods that were made from vegetables grown by the MOA nature farming method, and art therapies. Their thermal images were measured in a constant temperature hospital room (26±1 deg) before and after the hospitalization using an infrared thermal imaging camera. At the same time, OPT therapists recorded stiff and feverish points on based their own palpation. Thermal images were analyzed by software to transform the measured thermal images into a standard shape image of the human dorsum. The average, standard deviation, difference, and t-test value of the images were calculated. As a result, although images in the shoulder, kidney and waist regions were not symmetrically distributed before the hospitalization, the thermal images in these regions were symmetrically distributed after it. In the neck, shoulders and waist, the changes of thermal images corresponded to the recorded stiff and feverish points. Although therapists recorded some feverish and some stiff points in the back pancreas region, pecks of the analyzed thermal distribution in same region did not appear. Therefore, we concluded the thermal distribution analysis of the dorsum is a useful method to assess changes of various thermal images.
