Patent ID: 8868157

Claim:
A method of detecting a neuronal health of a patient's foot comprising the steps of: selecting a patient's foot to thermally monitor; obtaining a pre-treatment temperature of the patient's plantar foot being monitored; applying a cold pressor to an entire surface of the plantar foot of the patient for a predetermined amount of time to lower a temperature in the patient's foot to a temperature of between about 90° F. and 75° F.; removing the cold pressor from the patient's foot; obtaining a plurality of images of the patient's foot using an infrared imager having a data acquisition rate of at least 10 Hz to capture an increase of surface temperature of the patient's foot over a pre-determined amount of time after the cold pressor is removed from the patient's foot to measure a spatial and a temporal recovery of a thermal signal; registering the plurality of images obtained; determining a rate and a change in rate of temperature recovery of the patient's entire surface of the plantar foot during the first minute following cold pressor removal by determining a thermal measurement as a function of time at an initial thermal temperature minus an exponential function at a time, t, and for recovery factor K and determining a thermal recovery signal for the patient's entire surface of the plantar foot for a pre-determined period of time; and comparing with an appropriately programmed processor the rate and the change in rate of temperature recovery of the patient's entire surface of the plantar foot at the first minute and the thermal recovery signal at the pre-determined period of time to the same measurements obtained for a control patient's foot to determine the neuronal health of the patient's foot being thermally monitored.