title: Utility of thermography in the diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy.
abstract: We performed infrared telethermography in 55 patients with the clinical diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy and in 37 normal controls. Five readers interpreted the thermograms in a blinded fashion. A moderate degree of agreement was noted in tests of intraobserver and interobserver variability. The sensitivity of thermography ranged from 78% to 94% compared with 81% to 92% for imaging studies and 77% for EMG. The specificity of thermography ranged from 20% to 44%. Thermography predicted the level of the radiculopathy correctly in less than 50% of cases. Thermography has little or no utility in the diagnosis of lumbosacral radiculopathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Fealey
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Chelimsky
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Proper
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gillen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008161:Lumbosacral Region; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013126:Spinal Nerve Roots; D013817:Thermography; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed