title: Reliability of three methods of computer-aided thermal pattern analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The objective of this study was to assess three methods of computer-aided thermal pattern analysis for a) examiner reliability, b) inter-method differences, and c) determine which method yields the highest percent-similarity between paired test-retest scans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three examiners compared two sets of thermal scans from the same 30 subjects using three different methods of scan alignment. The results were evaluated by the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, at the 5% level of significance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intra and inter-examiner ICC scores for all methods were acceptable (> 0.75). There were no statistically significant differences (at the Bonferroni-corrected level of significance of 0.0004%) in percent similarity of the scans between the three methods
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results contribute evidence to the reliability of TPC program software. Manually aligning the readings plays an important role in obtaining precise TPC percent-similarities.
authors: Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29304, USA. jhart@sherman.edu
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Hart
authors: Bernard
authors: B
authors: Omolo
authors: W R
authors: WR
authors: Boone
authors: Charlene
authors: C
authors: Brown
authors: Andrew
authors: A
authors: Ashton