Thermography as a predictive tool for laser treatment of port-wine stains.
The argon laser, which has been proven both useful and safe for port-wine stain therapy, interacts with the hemoglobin of the vessels. In a percentage of cases, this treatment is still inefficient, and there is a lack of correlation between these bad results and clinical or histologic criteria. Thermography, which explores the vascularization of the port-wine stain, leads us to consider port-wine stains from a physical point of view. This very simple test shows no correlation with the clinical parameters of port-wine stain but is closely related to the results obtained with laser therapy. It seems to be a good criterion to estimate the argon laser treatment prognosis.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053685:Laser Therapy; D007866:Leg; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010859:Pigmentation Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis; D013817:Thermography; D013909:Thorax