Medical thermography: what is it for?

By Cristiano Antonino On Dec 27, 2022

Medical thermography is a non-invasive technique that makes it possible to highlight and measure the surface temperatures of the human body, using the heat energy emitted by the body through the skin in the form of infrared electromagnetic radiation

When and how to perform medical thermography

The human body produces heat which, for the most part, is dispersed into the environment through the skin: thermography is based on the observation that various pathological processes cause an increase in heat production in the affected body region.

The thermographic examination is in fact used for the diagnosis of certain tumours (especially of the breast and thyroid) and inflammatory states of the muscular system or ischemic lesions.

It also makes it possible to assess changes in blood flow in the limbs.

Thermography is an examination with absolutely no side effects, it is painless, non-invasive, simple to perform and does not use harmful radiation.

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There are different types of diagnostic investigation related to thermographic examination:

Liquid crystal contact thermography: exploits the property of liquid crystals to change their spatial arrangement according to temperature: in practice, plates made of liquid crystals are placed on the skin of the area to be investigated and these take on a different colour depending on the skin temperature.
Computer-assisted thermography: uses a plate that sends the different temperatures recorded on the analysed skin surface to a computer; the computer processes the data and provides an image consisting of the different colours corresponding to the different thermal gradations.

During medical thermography, the patient must be made comfortable in an environment with constant lighting

After taking the oral temperature (which must not exceed 37.5°C) the skin surface to be analysed must be exposed directly to the air for about 15 minutes.

The room temperature should be between 20° and 24°C, with relative humidity between 35 and 60%.

Prior to the examination, no smoking, no medication, no exposure to the sun or tanning lamps, no use of creams and refraining from strenuous physical activity.