A review on the application of medical infrared thermal imaging in hands

Infrared Thermal (IRT) imaging is a medical imaging modality to study skin temperature in real time, providing physiological information about the underlining structures. One of the most accessible body sites to be investigated using such imaging method is the hands, which can reflect valuable information about conditions affecting the upper limbs. The aim of this review is to acquaint the successful applications of IRT in the hands with a medical scope, opening horizons for future applications based in the achieved results. A systematic literature review was performed in order to assess in which applications medical IRT imaging was applied to the hands. The literature search was conducted in the reference databases: PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science, making use of keywords (hand, thermography, infrared imaging, thermal imaging) combination that were present at the title and abstract. No temporal restriction was made. As a result, 4260 articles were identified, after removal of duplicates, 3224 articles remained and from first title and abstract filtering, a total of 388 articles were considered. After application of exclusion criteria (non-availability, non-clinical applications, reviews, case studies, written in other languages than English and using liquid crystal thermography), 146 articles were considered for this review. It can be verified that thermography provides useful diagnostic and monitoring information of conditions that directly or indirectly related to hands, as well as aiding in the treatment assessment. Trends and future challenges for IRT applications on hands are provided to stimulate researchers and clinicians to explore and address them.