With the aid of passive infrared thermography the distribution pattern of the temperature of healthy horses is contrasted to horses with pathological processes in the head region to identify a possible correlation with inflammatory and neoplastic processes. Use is made of the fact that a horse offers a bilateral symmetry similar to humans and that a high degree of right-to-left symmetry to the emitted heat radiation of the body exists.
Within this incompleted study 4 horses with a secondary sinusitis, 3 horses with a progressive ethmoid hematoma, 1 horse with a neoplasm at the ethmoid, 1 horse with a neoplastic process in the nasal meatus and a foal with a malformation in the area of the choana are compared with a healthy control group of 9 horses.
Furthermore, for all horses with pathological processes other examination methods, for example endoscopy, radiography or computed tomography are used to assure diagnosis quality.
The first results of the study indicate that passive infrared thermography is suitable for complementing diagnostics of inflammatory and neoplastic processes in the head region of the horse.