Characteristic features of infrared thermographic imaging in primary raynaud’s phenomenon

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Raynaud’s phenomenon (RP) is characterized by the episodic whitening of the fingers upon exposure to cold. Verification of the condition is crucial in vibration-exposed patients. The current verification method is outdated, but thermographic imaging seems promising as a diagnostic replacement. By investigating patients diagnosed with RP, the study aimed at developing a simple thermographic procedure that could be applied to future patients where verification of the diagnosis is needed. Twenty-two patients with primary RP and 58 healthy controls were examined using thermographic imaging after local cooling of the hands for 1 min in water of 10C. A logistic regression model was fitted with the temperature curve characteristics to convey a predicted probability of having RP. The characteristics time to end temperature and baseline temperature were the most appropriate predictors of RP among those examined (p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively). The area under the curve was 0.91. The cut-off level 0.46 yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 82% and 86%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 69% and 93%, respectively. This newly developed thermographic method was able to distinguish between patients with RP and healthy controls and was easy to operate. Thus, the method showed great promise as a method for verification of RP in future patients. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03094910.

Original languageEnglish
Article number558
JournalDiagnostics
Volume11
Issue number3
Number of pages16
ISSN2075-4418
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • Diagnostic method, Infrared thermographic imaging, Primary Raynaud’s phenomenon, Vibration white finger

ID: 282478660