Faculty Collaboration Database

Utility of thermography in the diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy. Neurology 1991 Jul;41(7):1010-4

Date

07/11/1991

Pubmed ID

1648678

DOI

10.1212/wnl.41.7.1010

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0026018156 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   9 Citations

Abstract

We performed infrared telethermography in 55 patients with the clinical diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy and in 37 normal controls. Five readers interpreted the thermograms in a blinded fashion. A moderate degree of agreement was noted in tests of intraobserver and interobserver variability. The sensitivity of thermography ranged from 78% to 94% compared with 81% to 92% for imaging studies and 77% for EMG. The specificity of thermography ranged from 20% to 44%. Thermography predicted the level of the radiculopathy correctly in less than 50% of cases. Thermography has little or no utility in the diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy.

Author List

Harper CM Jr, Low PA, Fealey RD, Chelimsky TC, Proper CJ, Gillen DA

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Aged
Electromyography
Female
Humans
Lumbosacral Region
Male
Middle Aged
Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
Prospective Studies
Sensitivity and Specificity
Spinal Nerve Roots
Thermography
Tomography, X-Ray Computed