Neurology
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Correspondence:
Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when Correspondence are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by So, Y. T.
Right arrow Articles by Olney, R. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by So, Y. T.
Right arrow Articles by Olney, R. K.
NEUROLOGY 1989;39:1154
© 1989 American Academy of Neurology

The role of thermography in the evaluation of lumbosacral radiculopathy

Yuen T. So, MD, PhD, Michael J. Aminoff, MD, FRCP and Richard K. Olney, MD

Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA.

We studied 27 normal subjects and 30 patients with low back pain to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of thermography in the diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy. Thermographic abnormality was defined as the presence of either interside temperature difference exceeding 3 standard deviations from the normal mean, or an abnormal heat pattern overlying the lumbosacral spine. In patients with clinically unequivocal radiculopathy, thermography and electrophysiologic study were similar in diagnostic sensitivity, and the 2 methods agreed on the presence or absence of abnormality in 71% of cases. However, the thermographic findings had limited localizing value. Relative limb warming was often seen in patients with acute denervation on EMG, and limb cooling in those with more chronic lesions, but the side of the root lesion could not be identified confidently by thermography alone. Moreover, thermographic abnormalities appeared not to follow a dermatomal distribution and failed to identify the clinical or electrophysiologic level of radiculopathy in most cases. Thus, the thermographic findings are nonspecific, of little diagnostic value, and of uncertain prognostic relevance.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. So, Box 0114, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143.

Received February 3, 1989. Accepted for publication in final form March 22, 1989.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1989 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.