title: Use of thermographic criteria to identify Raynaud's phenomenon in a population setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the value of thermographic measurements of digital skin temperature after cold challenge in classifying Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) in a healthy population.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred seventy-five patients with RP and 404 controls were subjected to a 15 degrees C, 60 s cold challenge test. All participants were women. Digital temperature measurements were taken at baseline, immediately postimmersion, and 10 min after immersion using a portable radiometer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Baseline skin temperature was a significant predictor of RP; however, the fall in temperature on immersion and the subsequent rewarming rate provided no additional information.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Baseline skin temperature can help to predict the occurrence of RP in patients drawn from the general population, but has relatively low discriminatory power. The cold challenge test itself is of limited additional value for classification. Although objective temperature measurements show little power overall to discriminate between RP and non-RP patients, detecting low baseline digital temperature may be a useful adjunct to clinical history in classifying the disease.
authors.affiliation: Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England.
authors.forename: Lynn F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Cherkas
authors.forename: Liisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carter
authors.forename: Tim D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Spector
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Howell
authors.forename: Carol M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: Alex J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: MacGregor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011928:Raynaud Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012881:Skin Temperature; D013817:Thermography