RESEARCH ARTICLE


Thermography in Neurologic Practice



Eduardo Borba Neves *, 1, José Vilaça-Alves 2, Claudio Rosa 2, Victor Machado Reis 2
1 Biomedical Engineering, Brazilian Army, Brazil
2 Sports Science, Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro University, Portugal


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© Neves et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Rua Dom Pedro de Menezes 25 R/C direito, Vila Real, Portugal. CEP: 5000-688; Cell: +351 910412617; Tel: +351 259350877; E-mail: borbaneves@hotmail.com


Abstract

One kind of medical images that has been developed in the last decades is thermal images. These images are assessed by infrared cameras and have shown an exponential development in recent years. In this sense, the aim of this study was to describe possibilities of thermography usage in the neurologic practice. It was performed a systematic review in Web of Knowledge (Thompson Reuters), set in all databases which used two combination of keywords as “topic”: “thermography” and “neurology”; and “thermography” and “neurologic”. The chronological period was defined from 2000 to 2014 (the least 15 years). Among the studies included in this review, only seven were with experimental design. It is few to bring thermography as a daily tool in clinical practice. However, these studies have suggested good results. The studies of review and an analyzed patent showed that the authors consider the thermography as a diagnostic tool and they recommend its usage. It can be concluded that thermography is already used as a diagnostic and monitoring tool of patients with neuropathies, particularly in complex regional pain syndrome, and stroke. And yet, this tool has great potential for future research about its application in diagnosis of other diseases of neurological origin.

Keywords: Complex regional pain syndrome, neurologic, neurology, neuropathy, stroke, thermography.