Thermoregulation of the hand: Assessment with infrared thermography

Abstract

Clinical infrared thermography is based on measuring the skin surface temperature. In this study, thermographic images were used to analyze the thermoregulation process after a cold stimulus, applied to regions of interests distributed along the hand in healthy subjects. Two parameters were assessed by statistical methods: acclimation percentage and 60% acclimation time. The averaging values for all subjects in acclimation percentage parameter, ranges between 94.06%− 99.02% and 60% acclimation time parameter ranges between 2.08−3.58 minutes. Statistically significant differences between women and men were not found in the parameters evaluated, nevertheless, statistically significant differences were found between regions of interest. The infrared thermography is useful to assess the thermoregulation processes of the hand.