Thermography of Lower Limbs Varicose Veins: Mathematical Modeling

Chronic venous insufficiency affects up to 50% of the working population of European countries. The World Health Organization refers to this cardiovascular disease as a “disease of civilization”. Varicose disease develops due to pathological changes in the vascular wall of the venous bed and are accompanied by irreversible changes in the surrounding tissues and body systems, an increase in temperature at the site of inflammation. Thermography is used to detect visually unobservable pathological veins. The purpose of this work is to mathematically model the heat distribution over the surface of the human shin in the presence of lower limbs varicose disease, compare the distribution obtained with the results of thermography. This is the first time such mathematical modeling of varicose veins has been performed. By mathematical modeling of the heat spread using the heat conduction equation the following results were obtained. The temperature at the vessels projection site on the shin posterior surface is the higher, the greater the perfusion coefficient in the veins. The temperature at the projection site of varicose vascular areas on the shin posterior surface decreases with a decrease in the perfusion rate in the muscle tissue in which they are located. The thermal manifestation of varicose vessels increases when simulating a change in their shape and inflammation of the vascular wall by introducing tortuosity, setting the minimum perfusion coefficient and increasing the temperature on its surface. The development of mathematical modeling of the lower limbs varicose veins requires further versatile interdisciplinary research.