Thermographic Analysis of the Jugular Vein in Hospitalized Horses with Intravenous Catheters

Abstract: Background – Jugular vein catheterization is a routine, yet invasive, procedure performed in hospitalized horses that can result in complications such as thrombophlebitis. The initial clinical signs of thrombophlebitis can be difficult to detect. Understanding the thermographic profiles of the jugular vein with a catheter present could potentially lead to the use of thermography to predict complications early in the disease process.

Hypothesis/Objectives – The thermographic profiles of catheterized jugular veins will not differ from their baseline throughout the first 36 hours of catheterization.

Animals – 12 hospitalized adult horses.

Methods – Images were obtained in triplicate with a FLIRC5 camera prior to catheterization and preparation (baseline), 60 minutes post-catheterization, and in the morning and afternoon the following day. For analysis, the region of interest was set at 10cm cranial, caudal, dorsal and ventral to the jugular vein catheter insertion site. Temperatures of the insertion site (spot) and the jugular vein (line) were compared to baseline.

Results – The spot temperature and average line temperature differed across timepoints (Friedman test: spot P = 0.004, line P = 0.02), however no individual pairwise comparison reached significance after correction for multiple comparisons (Dunn’s test: all adjusted P > 0.05).

Conclusions and Clinical Importance – While there was overall a difference in the temperatures over the first 36 hours of catheterization, the timepoints utilized did not differ significantly from baseline, suggesting that the presence of an intravenous catheter does not result in a change in the thermographic profile when compared to the baseline.