All organisms carry out metabolic processes to produce chemical energy, but these biochemical pathways are not perfectly efficient and energetic waste is lost as heat. The interplay of heat production/retention/loss in endotherms has been well studied via thermal imaging. However, there is a striking absence of literature on the thermal output of ectotherms, especially invertebrate animals. We have developed a new thermal imaging technique to investigate waste heat production in the nematode worm C. elegans. No direct measurement of this metabolic waste heat has been made in C. elegans or any other mesoinvertebrate using IR imaging techniques.

Inadequate tissue perfusion is a fundamental cause of early complications following a range of procedures including the creations of skin flaps/grafts during reconstructive microsurgery and complex closures during amputation. Clinical examination remains the primary means of evaluating tissue perfusion intraoperatively. Recently, indocyanine green (ICG) angiography has been used as an adjunt to physical examination. However, ICG angiography is an invasive procedure that requires the intravenous application of a fluorescent dye.

Enhanced thermal imaging (ETI) is a non-invasive, real-time infrared imaging technique that can detect blood vessels embedded in soft tissue. ETI uses selective heating of blood via illumination with a green (532 nm) LED to produce a thermal contrast (≥ 0.5 ◦C) between blood vessels and surrounding water-rich tissue. Vessel-rich regions appear brighter in the thermal image. ETI does not require the use of dyes and recent improvements to the acquisition software have enabled real-time imaging. The compact footprint of the system could allow for use both intraoperatively and at the bedside.