Infrared thermal evaluation of the spine in sportive adults: a morphological classification.

Background: The interest in infrared thermography (IRT) applied to the human body is increasing in the last few years, considering the non-invasive and risk-free nature of the exam. With the IRT it is possible to analyze all the visible regions of interest (ROI) of the human body and evaluate, by analyzing the temperature, their metabolic and vascular activities and possible asymmetries. Aim: the aim of this study is to use the IRT to evaluate the thermal profile of the back of healthy subjects and relate it to the type of sport practiced. Methods: The spines of 54 participants considered healthy after careful clinical evaluation were evaluated, 14 female and 40 male, mean age of 22.3 (2.1), mean height 169.6 (9.5), mean weight 66.2 (13.4) and mean BMI of 22.8. Participants were divided into three groups by sport practiced: Fitness (F), Soccer (C), Dance (D). Thermal images were acquired with a professional FlirE60 IRT (Wilsonville, OR, USA) and three representative ROI of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions were identified. The statistical analysis used were the Shapiro-Wilk test to evaluate normality and Anova analysis with a post hoc Tukey test to compare groups. Results: The data were normally distributed. Anova analysis was statistically significant for cervical (p<0.001), dorsal (p<0.001) and lumbar (p<0.01) area between groups. Furthermore, Tukey post hoc test showed significant differences between soccer players (temperature 34.32° SD=0.72°) and dancers (temperature 33.36° SD=0.97°) (p < 0.01), dancers and fitness (temperature 34.68° SD=0.96°) (p<0.001) for the cervical area. Significance was also found between the dorsal area of subjects practicing fitness (temperature 34.0° SD=1.03°) and dancers (temperature 32.71° SD= 0.92°) (p <0.001) and subjects practicing dance and football (temperature 33.70 SD=0.88°) (p<0.05). A statistically significant difference was found for the lumbar region only between dancers (temperature 32.17° SD=1.28°) and fitness group (temperature 33.32° SD=1.33°) (p<0.01). Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that defines the thermal profile of the back of healthy subjects and classifies it according to the type of sport practiced. From the statistical analysis it emerged that dancers had a statistically lower cervical average temperature than the other groups while for the dorsal tract, the fitness group had a statistically higher average temperature than the other groups. Significant differences were found for the lumbar region, but only between dancers and fitness group. These differences can be explained considering the muscles involved in the specific technical gestures of the discipline. These results will be useful for the future evaluation of thermal patterns in subjects with alterations caused by musculoskeletal pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]