ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 1999 April;134(2):89-93

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Telethermography in the study of localized and systemic scleroderma. Preliminary results in 18 cases

Piccinno R. ², Menni S. ¹, Passoni E. ¹, Marzano A. V. ¹, Caccialanza M. ²

¹ Institute of Dermatologic Sciences of University, Ospedale Maggiore IRCCS, Milan; ² Department of Photoradiotherapy, Ospedale Maggiore IRCCS, Milan

Background. Infrared tele­ther­mog­ra­phy is a non­in­va­sive meth­od ­employed to inves­ti­gate ­skin tem­per­a­ture in nor­mal and path­o­log­ic con­di­tions.
Meth­ods. Since the dif­fi­cul­ty to eval­u­ate objec­tive­ly the ­course of scler­o­der­ma ­lesions, 18 ­patients affect­ed by dif­fer­ent clin­i­cal ­forms of the dis­ease have been studied by ­means of tele­ther­mog­ra­phy, per­formed ­with an AGA Thermovision 782 instru­ment. Four ­patients repeat­ed the inves­ti­ga­tion ­after treat­ment.
Results. The ­results of the exam­ina­tion ­were main­ly affect­ed by the ­degree of atro­phy and lipoa­tro­phy, the dura­tion of the ­lesions and the pres­ence of vas­cu­lar dam­age, ­even if incon­stant­ly. In two of the ­four ­patients mon­i­tored ­after the treat­ment, the ther­mo­graph­ic ­data ­showed a ­good rela­tion­ship ­with the clin­i­cal ­response of the dis­ease.
Conclusions. The pre­lim­i­nary ­results of ­this ­study indi­cate ­that ­infrared ther­mog­ra­phy ­could pro­vide ­some infor­ma­tion ­about the ­course of scler­o­der­ma and its ­response to ther­a­py and sug­gest ­that it ­could be advan­ta­geous­ly ­employed to sup­port and com­plete the ­data ­obtained by oth­er inves­ti­ga­tive meth­ods ­such as ultra­sound scan­ning.