Infrared imaging to quantify the effects of nicotine-induced vasoconstriction in humans

Siegfried Brunner; Christian Kargel

doi:10.1117/12.818106

22 April 2009 Infrared imaging to quantify the effects of nicotine-induced vasoconstriction in humans

Siegfried Brunner, Christian Kargel

Proceedings Volume 7299, Thermosense XXXI; 729905 (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818106
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2009, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Smoking is the most significant source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide (WHO-2008). One of the many effects of nicotine is vasoconstriction which is triggered by the autonomic nervous system. The constriction of blood vessels e.g. of the skin's vascular bed is responsible for a decrease of the supply with oxygen and nutrients and a lowering of the skin temperature. We used infrared imaging to quantify temperature decreases caused by cigarette smoking in the extremities of smokers and also monitored heart rate as well as blood pressure. The results - including thermograms showing "temporary amputations" of the fingertips due to a significant temperature drop - can help increase the awareness of the dangers of smoking and the success of withdrawal programs. Surprisingly, in our control persons (3 brave non-smoking volunteers who smoked a cigarette) we also found temperature increases suggesting that vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) was provoked by cigarettes. To verify this unexpected finding and eliminate effects from the 4000 chemical compounds in the smoke, we repeated the experiment following a stringent protocol ruling out physiological and psychological influences with 9 habitual smokers and 17 nonsmokers who all chew gums with 2 mg of nicotine. Task-optimized digital image processing techniques (target detection, image-registration and -segmentation) were applied to the acquired infrared image sequences to automatically yield temperature plots of the fingers and palm. In this paper we present the results of our study in detail and show that smokers and non-smokers respond differently to the administration of nicotine.

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Siegfried Brunner and Christian Kargel "Infrared imaging to quantify the effects of nicotine-induced vasoconstriction in humans", Proc. SPIE 7299, Thermosense XXXI, 729905 (22 April 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.818106

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KEYWORDS

Thermography

Heart

Temperature metrology

Image segmentation

Infrared imaging

Skin

Blood pressure

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