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

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.