The Effectiveness of Infrared Thermography in Patients with Whiplash Injury

• Published in: Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society 2015, Vol.57 (4), p.283-288
• Main Authors: Lee, Young Seo, Paeng, Sung Hwa, Farhadi, Hooman F, Lee, Won Hee, Kim, Sung Tae, Lee, Kun Su
• Format: Article
• Language: Korean
• ISSN: 2005-3711; 1598-7876

Objective : This study aims to visualize the subjective symptoms before and after the treatment of whiplash injury using infrared (IR) thermography. Methods : IR thermography was performed for 42 patients who were diagnosed with whiplash injury. There were 19 male and 23 female patients. The mean age was 43.12 years. Thermal differences (${\Delta}T$) in the neck and shoulder and changes in the thermal differences (${\Delta}dT$) before and after treatment were analyzed. Pain after injury was evaluated using visual analogue scale (VAS) before and after treatment (${\Delta}VAS$). The correlations between ${\Delta}dT$ and ${\Delta}VAS$ results before and after the treatment were examined. We used Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging equipment of Dorex company for IR thermography. Results : The skin temperature of the neck and shoulder immediately after injury showed $1-2^{\circ}C$ hyperthermia than normal. After two weeks, the skin temperature was normal range. ${\Delta}T$ after immediately injuy was higher than normal value, but it was gradually near the normal value after two weeks. ${\Delta}dT$ before and after treatment were statistically significant (p