Temperature Asymmetry Analysis between Left and Right Wrist with Sensory and Infrared Thermography

Abstract

This article reports a thermal analysis of the wrists to analyze the behavior and recovery of skin temperature after 20 min when performing a highly repetitive movement, and two thermography methods (sensory and infrared) and research groups were compared. The tests were carried out with 44 participants who performed a repetitive task for 10 min and integrated into two groups, of which 22 were trained workers from a maquiladora company and were analyzed with sensory thermography, and the other 22 were in the laboratory with infrared thermography with undergraduate students. The study area is the left and right hand, specifically the wrists. The proposed hypothesis is that people with some musculoskeletal problems have a decrease in temperature when starting repetitive tasks and thermal asymmetries, which measurements were recorded at 0, 10, 15, and 20 min after the task was finished. Findings indicate that the temperatures in both wrists behave similarly. The workers reached higher temperatures, and the centigrade degrees of asymmetry difference were also higher. The variable with influence on the temperature was fractured in the arm. After thermally analyzing the temperature behavior between the wrists of both hands, it is concluded that there is an increase in temperature after finishing a repetitive task, and it does not stabilize after 20 min. Both thermography methods observed that the asymmetries are greater than 0.5 °C, detecting the possible pathology of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Morphological features of the photoplethysmographic signal: a new approach to characterize the microcirculatory response to photobiomodulation

“…The study analyses and compares PPG recordings of responders and non-responders (NR) to PBM. The criterion for dividing the participants into responders (n = 12) and non-responders (n = 8) in the original study was an increase of ≥0.5 °C which is accepted as a deviation from the normal symmetrical thermal distribution between sides of the body extremities (Ammer, 2012;Garcia Becerra et al, 2022) and was found to indicate underlying pathologies (Suominen and Asko-Seljavaara, 1996;Selfe et al, 2008). In the original study (Gavish et al, 2020), this criterion was used as a threshold for dynamic changes in thermal response to PBM.…”

Evaluating the Asymmetry of Muscle Activation and Strength in Paralympic Powerlifting Athletes

“…Thus, training load control has been important in reducing the risk of injuries and improving performance [ 1 , 12 ]. On the other hand, fatigue would be related to loss of speed and metabolic stress [ 12 , 13 ]. Allied with this, the decrease in asymmetries would be related to improvements in function, strength, and power.…”

Reference Standards for Digital Infrared Thermography Measuring Surface Temperature of the Upper Limbs

“…Digital infrared thermographic imaging (DITI) has been utilized as an ancillary diagnostic method for various medical conditions related to the upper extremities. For instance, cervical radiculopathy; peripheral nerve entrapment syndrome (e.g., carpal tunnel syndrome); rheumatic disease (e.g., Raynaud’s disease); complex regional pain syndrome; tendinopathy; hand arthritis (e.g., psoriatic arthritis); and skin cancer can be confirmed by DITI [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The hypo-radiant (hypothermia) or hyper-radiant (hyperthermia) regions can be identified by comparing the temperature between the right and left arms or with empirical normal ranges.…”