The present invention relates to a temperature measuring device and a temperature measuring method that measure the internal temperature of a subject such as a living body.
In a substance, for example, a living body, when a certain depth is exceeded from the epidermis toward a deep body, there is a temperature area that is not affected by changes in outside air temperature, or the like, and the temperature of this area is called a deep body temperature or a core body temperature. On the other hand, the temperature of a surface layer of a living body that is susceptible to changes in outside air temperature is called a body surface temperature. The body surface temperature may be measured by a percutaneous thermometer in the related art. The body temperature measured by such a percutaneous thermometer in the related art may not reflect the deep body temperature. Therefore, it is difficult to directly measure the deep body temperature, which is the temperature in the deep area of the living body, like the body surface temperature.
Therefore, the inventor proposed a noninvasive deep body temperature measurement technology for measuring a skin surface heat flux HSkin and a skin surface temperature TSkin by a sensor installed on a skin surface and estimating a deep body temperature Tcore by using these measured values and biothermal resistance RBody given by initial calibration (see NPL 1 and NPL 2). An equation for estimating the deep body temperature Tcore is as follows.
T
core
=T
Skin
+R
Body
H
skin (1)
However, the technology disclosed in NPL 1 and NPL 2 requires the biothermal resistance RBody to be derived by inputting an initial value of the deep body temperature Tcore at the time of initial calibration before the start of measurement, so the burden on a person who measures the deep body temperature Tcore is heavy.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a temperature measuring device and a temperature measuring method, capable of reducing the burden on a person who measures the internal temperature of a subject such as a living subject.
A temperature measuring device according to embodiments of the present invention includes: a sensor configured to measure a temperature of a surface of a subject and a heat flux on the surface; a time constant calculation unit configured to calculate a time constant of changes in the temperature over time on the basis of a measurement result of the temperature; a thermal resistance derivation unit configured to derive thermal resistance of the subject on the basis of the time constant; and a temperature calculation unit configured to calculate an internal temperature of the subject on the basis of the temperature, the heat flux, and the thermal resistance.
Furthermore, a temperature measuring method according to embodiments of the present invention includes: a first step of measuring a temperature of a surface of a subject; a second step of calculating a time constant of changes in the temperature over time on the basis of a measurement result of the temperature; a third step of deriving thermal resistance of the subject on the basis of the time constant; a fourth step of measuring the temperature of the surface of the subject and a heat flux on the surface; and a fifth step of calculating an internal temperature of the subject on the basis of a measurement result in the fourth step and the thermal resistance calculated in the third step.
According to embodiments of the present invention, providing a time constant calculation unit and a thermal resistance derivation unit enables to derive the thermal resistance of a subject at the start of measurement, so that it is not necessary to input the initial value of the internal temperature of the subject and it is possible to reduce the burden on a person who measures the internal temperature.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The sensor 1 includes a thermal insulation member 100, a temperature sensor 101 disposed on a surface of the thermal insulation member 100 in contact with the skin of the body 10, and a temperature sensor 102 disposed on a surface of the thermal insulation member 100 on a side opposite to the surface in contact with the skin. By the temperature sensor 101, it is possible to measure the temperature Tskin of the skin surface of the living body 10. Furthermore, it is possible to derive the heat flux Hskin of the skin surface on the basis of a difference between the temperature Tskin of the skin surface and a temperature Tupper measured by the temperature sensor 102. The sensor 1 is attached to the skin surface of the living body 10 by, for example, a thermally conductive double-sided tape. The configuration illustrated in
The changes Tskin(t) in the temperature of the skin surface of the living body 10 over time immediately after sensor attachment and the changes Tupper (t) in the temperature of the upper surface of the sensor 1 over time immediately after the sensor attachment are expressed as follows by using the outside air temperature TAir, the deep body temperature TCore of the living body 10, the thermal resistance RBody of the living body 10, the thermal resistance Rsensor of the sensor 1, the thermal resistance RAir of the outside air, the heat capacity CBody of the living body 10, and the heat capacity Csensor of the sensor 1.
In Equations 2 and 3 above, TSkin (t) indicates the differential of TSkin (t) and Tupper (t) indicates the differential of Tupper (t).
In Equations 2 and 3 above, with CBody>>Csensor, Equation 4 below is obtained.
In Equation 4 above, Tskin(o) denotes the skin surface temperature immediately after the sensor attachment. When curve fitting is used to determine the time constant τ of the changes Tskin(t) in the skin surface temperature over time that best fits the curve of the changes Tskin(t) in the skin surface temperature over time expressed by Equation 4 above, Equation 5 below is obtained.
The value of the thermal resistance RAir of the outside air is a constant value under natural convection and the value does not change. The value of the thermal resistance Rsensor of the sensor 1 is peculiar to the sensor 1 and the value does not change. The value of the ratio of the thermal resistance RBody and the heat capacity CBody of the living body 10 is peculiar to the tissue of the living body 10. Consequently, the heat capacity CBody can be expressed by the equation below by using the thermal resistance RBody.
C
Body
=αR
Body (6)
In Equation 6 above, a denotes a coefficient. From the above, the thermal resistance RBody of the living body 10 is proportional to the square root of the time constant τ.
Consequently, as for the body 10 whose deep body temperature Tcore is to be measured, when the relationship between the time constant τ of the changes Tskin(t) in the skin surface temperature over time immediately after the sensor attachment and the thermal resistance RBody of the living body 10 is determined by an experiment, a calibration curve L can be obtained as illustrated in
The time constant calculation unit 3 of the temperature measuring device calculates the time constant τ of the changes Tskin(t) of the skin surface temperature over time immediately after the sensor attachment on the basis of the result of the continuous measurement (step S100 in
The thermal resistance derivation unit 4 of the temperature measuring device derives the thermal resistance RBody by acquiring, from the calibration table of the storage unit 2, the value of the thermal resistance RBody of the living body 10 corresponding to the time constant τ calculated by the time constant calculation unit 3 (step S102 in
Next, the temperature calculation unit 5 of the temperature measuring device calculates the deep body temperature TCore of the living body 10 by Equation 1 on the basis of the of result of the measurement (step S103 in
The calculation result output unit 6 of the temperature measuring device outputs the calculation result of the temperature calculation unit 5 (step S105 in
As described above, in the present embodiment, it is not necessary to input an initial value of the deep body temperature Tcore because it is possible to derive the thermal resistance RBody of the living body 10 only from the calibration table generated in advance, which makes it possible to reduce the burden on a person (a person wearing the sensor 1 or a measurer other than the person) who measures the body temperature Tcore.
The storage unit 2, the time constant calculation unit 3, the thermal resistance derivation unit 4, the temperature calculation unit 5, and the calculation result output unit 6 described in the present embodiment can be implemented by a computer including a central processing unit (CPU), a storage device, and an interface, and a program that controls these hardware resources. An example of the configuration of the computer is illustrated in
The computer includes a CPU 200, a storage device 201, and an interface device (hereinafter abbreviated as an I/F) 202. The I/F 202 is for connecting sensor 1, a display device, a communication device, or the like. In such a computer, a program for implementing the temperature measuring method according to embodiments of the present invention is stored in the storage device 201. The CPU 200 executes the processing described in the present embodiment in accordance with the program stored in the storage device 201.
The embodiments of the present invention can be applied to a technology for measuring the internal temperature of a subject such as a living subject.
This application is a national phase entry of PCT Application No. PCT/JP2020/018095, filed on Apr. 28, 2020, which application is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2020/018095 | 4/28/2020 | WO |