A simple, rapid, low-cost method was proposed for the imaging of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms on metallic surfaces using an infrared camera. Stainless steel coupons were cooled to generate a thermal gradient in relation to biofilm for active thermography (AT). Both cooling and image acquisition times were optimized and the images obtained with AT were compared with those from scanning electron microscopy. A free software (Thermofilm) was developed for image processing and the results were compared with the software ImageJ, with good agreement (from 87.7 to 103.8%). Images of coupons treated with sanitizer (peracetic acid) were obtained to show the applicability of the proposed method for biofilm studies. All analytical steps could be performed in 3 min in a noncontact, nondestructive, low-cost, portable, and easy-to-use way.

中文翻译：

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使用主动热成像技术在金属表面进行生物膜成像的快速，无创和无损方法。

提出了一种简单，快速，低成本的方法，用于使用红外热像仪对金属表面上的铜绿假单胞菌生物膜进行成像。冷却不锈钢试样以产生相对于生物膜的热梯度，以进行主动热成像（AT）。优化了冷却时间和图像获取时间，并将通过AT获得的图像与来自扫描电子显微镜的图像进行了比较。开发了免费软件（Thermofilm）进行图像处理，并将结果与​​ImageJ软件进行了比较，一致性良好（从87.7到103.8％）。获得了用消毒剂（过乙酸）处理过的试样的图像，以显示所提出的方法在生物膜研究中的适用性。所有分析步骤都可以在3分钟内以非接触，非破坏性，低成本，便携式且易于使用的方式执行。