Biomedical musculoskeletal applications of infrared thermal imaging on arm and forearm: A systematic review

Abstract

Infrared thermal imaging (IRT) has been a target of research for biomedical musculoskeletal applications, due to the possible association of the physiological data that it provides, through skin temperature measurement, with pathological states. The aim of this systematic review is to acquaint the outcomes of the biomedical application of IRT in arm and forearm evaluation and its future perspectives of research. During the literature review, 926 articles were identified using the search engines PubMed and Scopus, and 10 articles were retrieved from other sources. After screening the abstracts and applying the eligibility criteria on those which were fully accessible, 33 articles were included in the review. It can be observed that IRT has the potential to provide physiological information on the arm and forearm, showing potential to serve as an aid in various pathologies and health situations. Future studies and challenges are identified and proposed, facilitating the improvement and acceptance of the application of IRT in the assessment of arm and forearm' health status.

Application of infrared thermography in the early warning of pressure injury: A prospective observational study

“…Infrared thermography is a kind of temperature measurement technology, which can collect and record the far‐infrared light waves radiated by body, processed by multimedia image and displaying the thermal field of body (Farid et al, 2012). Due to its advantages of rapid, simple, objective, accurate, sensitive and non‐invasive (Huang et al, 2011), infrared thermography has been widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of some diseases such as tumour, blood disease, diabetes, rheumatism, nervous system diseases, acute and chronic inflammation (Chanmugam et al, 2017; Vardasca et al, 2019). Infrared thermography can be used to comparatively assess the wound temperature in relation to the surrounding skin.…”

Occupational Risk Evaluation through Infrared Thermography: Development and Proposal of a Rapid Screening Tool for Risk Assessment Arising from Repetitive Actions of the Upper Limbs

“…The aim of this study was to develop a rapid tool for assessing the risk of developing WMSDs arising from repetitive actions of the upper limbs, while using skin temperature variation as an independent variable. Monitoring skin temperature might provide important information about the performance and reaction of muscles and joints [48,63], which in turn might indicate the presence or development of musculoskeletal disorders [18,63,64]. The study of the skin temperature of individuals during sports, exercises, and office tasks has been performed by authors prior to the execution of this study [10,14,16,20,47,57].…”

Thermovision assessment of temperature changes in selected body areas after short-wave diathermy treatment

“…In medicine, thermal imaging is used primarily as a supplement to the diagnostics of X-ray examinations, ultrasound or computed tomography. The method based on the assessment of temperature differences can be used to detect inflammation, inflammation, blood flow in blood vessels, and to assess the depth and extent of burns [16][17][18][19][20]. For many years, the measurement of human body temperature, and in principle its anomalies, have been used in ophthalmological, laryngological, dermtological, neurological diagnostics, urology, surgery, orthopedics, gastrology, endocrinology and even oncology.…”

“…For many years, the measurement of human body temperature, and in principle its anomalies, have been used in ophthalmological, laryngological, dermtological, neurological diagnostics, urology, surgery, orthopedics, gastrology, endocrinology and even oncology. Thermovision is also used in physiotherapy and cosmetology as a diagnostic and therapeutic method [3,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”