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Introduction: Knee degenerative processes, such as osteoarthritis, are disabling. An early intervention is generally more effective making important a timely diagnosis. A pre-diagnosis tool could be the thermal camera that allows the detection of joint inflammation. Consequently, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the literature and propose a thermal attention threshold for infrared thermography data in people with knee osteoarthritis., Methods: four electronic databases were searched with specific keywords until the 25 th of March 2024. Only original articles about joint inflammation due to osteoarthritis evaluated through digital infrared thermal images were included. A quality assessment analysis was performed. The attention threshold was extracted through the median of the extracted data. The findings were narratively discussed., Results: A total of 9 studies have been included after the eligibility criteria selection. The studies presented some differences in terms of acquisition protocol, thermal imaging camera, data extrapolation, and analysis. Despite these differences, the studies presented similar thermal data., Conclusion: A knee thermography of or above 31.3 °C could indicate osteoarthritis, highlighting the necessity of further, more specific, and accurate analysis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-harmful, risk-free imaging technique and it has application for healthy and pathological population., Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the thermographic profiles of the back of sport practitioners from different disciplines and compare it with those of sedentary healthy individuals., Method: The back of 160 healthy subjects were evaluated, and participants were grouped considering their sport practice: team sport (TS), individual sport (IS), weight training (WT), inactive (I). Three regions of interest were identified to analyze the cervical, thoracic and lumbar temperatures of the back., Results: The Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) resulted significant showing statistical differences for the cervical (p < 0.001), dorsal (p = 0.0011), and lumbar areas (p = 0.0366). The Tukey post-hoc test for pairwise comparison showed statistically significant differences between groups. For the cervical area significance was found between the IN and WT group (p = 0.002), the IN and IS group (p < 0.001), IN and TS group (p = 0.020). The dorsal area resulted significant between the IN and WT group (p = 0.007), the IN and IS group (p < 0.001), IN and TS group. The lumbar area showed significant differences only between the IN and WT group and the IN and IS group (p = 0.043)., Conclusion: This study demonstrated that inactive individuals manifest a statistically significant higher temperature in the cervical, dorsal and lumbar area of the back compared to sportive individuals., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Infrared thermography is gaining attention in the field of sports medicine and performance. This study investigated the effects of static and dynamic warm-ups and a 90° change of direction (COD) exercise on the thermal response of the knee. Methods: Thermograms were collected using the FlIR E54 Imaging Camera from 85 healthy young adults, 46 men and 39 women, aged 20-31 years. The participants were divided in two groups, static and dynamic warm-up. Four thermograms were taken: baseline (T0), warm-up (T1), COD (T2), and rest (T3). Four regions of interest (ROIs) of the knee were analyzed: anterior upper half (AUH), anterior lower half (ALH), posterior upper half (PUH), and posterior lower half (PLH). Mixed ANOVA with the Bonferroni-Holm test and independent t-test were used for pairwise comparison and to spot differences between the right and left knees at T1 and T2 and at T0 between men and women, respectively. Results: The mixed ANOVA was significant for time points (p< 0.001) in all the ROIs and for the stretching/temperature interaction with different levels of significance. The t-test results for the right and left knees at T1 and T2 were not significant. The temperature in the static warm-up group followed a decrease at T1, a subsequent decrease at T2, and a recovery similar to the baseline at T3, in the ALH in men and women and in the PUH only in men. Conclusion: Static stretching was more suitable for preparing the knee for the COD exercise than the dynamic one in terms of the thermal response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for noninvasive methods to assess postural defections is increasing because back alterations are more common among the healthy population. We propose a combined infrared method of rasterstereography and thermography to assess the back without harmful effects. This study aims to provide reference data on rasterstereography and thermography to evaluate the back of a healthy population and to further study the correlation between these two methods. This cross-sectional research involved 175 healthy individuals (85 males and 90 females) aged 22 to 35 years. There is a large Cohen's d effect size in the cervical depth (males = 43.77 ± 10.96 mm vs. females = 34.29 ± 7.04 mm, d = 1.03), and in the lumbar lordosis angle (males = 37.69 ± 8.89° vs. females = 46.49 ± 8.25°, d = − 1.03). The back temperature was different for gender in the cervical area (males = 33.83 ± 0.63 °C vs. females = 34.26 ± 0.84 °C, d = − 0.58) and dorsal area (males = 33.13 ± 0.71 °C vs. females = 33.59 ± 0.97 °C, d = − 0.55). Furthermore, in the female group there was a moderate correlation of lumbar temperature with lumbar lordosis angle (r = − 0.50) and dorsal temperature with shoulders torsion (r = 0.43). Males showed a moderate correlation for vertebral surface rotation RMS with cervical (r = − 0.46), dorsal (r = − 0.60), and lumbar (r = − 0.50) areas and cervical temperature with shoulders obliquity (r = 0.58). These results highlight a possible correlation between rasterstereography and thermography, which may elucidate the underlying mechanics of spinal alterations and thermal muscle response. Our findings may represent reference data for other studies using noninvasive methods to assess postural alterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent and Juvenile Idiopathic Scoliosis are a three-dimensional spine deformity characterized by a muscle alteration of the convex and concave sides of the scoliosis, which can be evaluated with different non-invasive and radiation-free methods such as infrared thermography. The objective of the present review is to assess infrared thermography as a potential method to evaluate alterations of the scoliosis. A systematic review was performed by collecting articles from PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar, published from 1990 to April 2022, on the use of infrared thermography to evaluate adolescent and juvenile idiopathic scoliosis. Relevant data were collected in tables, and the primary outcomes were discussed narratively. Of the 587 articles selected, only 5 were in line with the objective of this systematic review and were eligible for the inclusion criteria. The findings of the selected articles corroborate the applicability of infrared thermography as an objective method to assess the thermal differences of the muscles between the convex and concave sides of scoliosis. The overall quality of the research was uneven in the reference standard method and assessment of measures. Infrared thermography is providing promising results to discriminate thermal differences in scoliosis evaluation, albeit there are still some concerns about considering it as a diagnostic tool for scoliosis evaluation because specific recommendations for collecting data are not met. We propose additional recommendations to existing guidelines to perform thermal acquisition to reduce errors and provide the best results to the scientific community. • Infrared thermography is a valid method to assess scoliosis alterations. • The muscles of scoliosis convex and concave sides are thermally different. • The mean temperature difference of upper back in scoliotic individuals is 0.3°. • We propose a standard procedure to follow when assessing scoliosis with IRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is defined as a three-dimensional spine deformity with a multifactorial etiology involving genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. The clinical evaluation of AIS is based on the anterior trunk flexion test, Adams test, and the measurement of the hump that occurs through the scoliometer. Currently, the gold standard for diagnosing scoliosis is radiography. It is configured as disease identification and monitoring method; however, the use of radiography is associated with awareness of the potential adverse effects of exposure to x-rays. In this context, several non-invasive methods have been introduced with high reliability in evaluating scoliosis. Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-invasive method that provides information on the body’s thermal, metabolic and vascular conditions in the area of interest. It is effective for assessing asymmetries in temperature distribution, making it versatile in monitoring scoliosis throughout its course. The muscles of the convex side of scoliosis are characterized by a more intense electromyographic activity than the concave side, the thermography analyzing the temperature radiated by the muscles can compute the present asymmetries. Aim: This study aimed to analyze the thermal differences of the back surface between the convex and concave sides of scoliotic individuals compared with non-scoliotic individuals. Methods: A sample of 48 individuals with and without adolescent idiopathic scoliosis diagnosed by radiography was collected. We used infrared thermography, FLIR E54, to assess the presence of asymmetrical muscle activity. For the statistical analysis, ANOVA and Tukey’s test were employed to analyze the temperature of the trapezius, latissimus dorsi, and quadratus lumborum muscles, dividing the individuals by topography of scoliosis, i.e., thoracic scoliosis, thoracolumbar scoliosis, and individuals without scoliosis. Results: The mean age of the sample is 12.2 ± 2.29 years, height 153 ± 13.4 cm, weight 48.0 ± 13.5 kg. In the group with thoracic scoliosis, the diff erential (Δ) of the mean temperature of the trapezius muscle is 0.47 ° C ± 0.16 ° C, Δ of the latissimus dorsi is 0.37 ± 0.30, Δ of the quadratus lumborum is 0.63 ± 0.35. In the group with thoracolumbar scoliosis, Δ of the trapezius muscle is 0.19 ° C ± 0.22 ° C, Δ of the latissimus dorsi is 0.42 ± 0.21, Δ of the quadratus lumborum is 0.49 ± 0.26. In the group without scoliosis, Δ of the trapezius muscle is 0.09 ° C ± 0.09 ° C, Δ of the latissimus dorsi muscle is 0.12 ° C ± 0.09 ° C, Δ of the quadratus lumborum is 0.21 ° C ± 0.27 ° C. Conclusion: The hypothesis that the IRT analysis differs in individuals with thoracic, thoracolumbar scoliosis, and without scoliosis was confirmed. In individuals with scoliosis, the convex side always has a higher surface temperature than the convex side. Furthermore, the topographic classifi cation can guide clinicians toward a precise IRT analysis of scoliosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]