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. 2022 Aug 18;19(16):10240.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610240.

Temperature Asymmetry Analysis between Left and Right Wrist with Sensory and Infrared Thermography

Alejandra García Becerra  1 , Jesús Everardo Olguín Tiznado  2 , Jorge Luis García Alcaraz  3 , Claudia Camargo Wilson  2 , Juan Andrés López Barreras  4 , Julio Cesar Cano Gutiérrez  2 , Rosa Blanca Garcia-Rivera  5
Affiliations

Temperature Asymmetry Analysis between Left and Right Wrist with Sensory and Infrared Thermography

Alejandra García Becerra et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This article reports a thermal analysis of the wrists to analyze the behavior and recovery of skin temperature after 20 min when performing a highly repetitive movement, and two thermography methods (sensory and infrared) and research groups were compared. The tests were carried out with 44 participants who performed a repetitive task for 10 min and integrated into two groups, of which 22 were trained workers from a maquiladora company and were analyzed with sensory thermography, and the other 22 were in the laboratory with infrared thermography with undergraduate students. The study area is the left and right hand, specifically the wrists. The proposed hypothesis is that people with some musculoskeletal problems have a decrease in temperature when starting repetitive tasks and thermal asymmetries, which measurements were recorded at 0, 10, 15, and 20 min after the task was finished. Findings indicate that the temperatures in both wrists behave similarly. The workers reached higher temperatures, and the centigrade degrees of asymmetry difference were also higher. The variable with influence on the temperature was fractured in the arm. After thermally analyzing the temperature behavior between the wrists of both hands, it is concluded that there is an increase in temperature after finishing a repetitive task, and it does not stabilize after 20 min. Both thermography methods observed that the asymmetries are greater than 0.5 °C, detecting the possible pathology of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Keywords: fingers; infrared thermography; physiological variables; repetitive work; temperature recovery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sensory thermography, the procedure to carry out the tests with sensory thermography, placed the sensors in the wrist and elbow.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Temperature sample of participants with TS: (a) Wrist of the right hand and (b) Wrist of the left hand.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Temperature sample of participants with TS: (a) Wrist of the right hand and (b) Wrist of the left hand.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Temperature sample with IRT: (a) right-hand wrist temperature (b) left-hand temperature.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Temperature sample with IRT: (a) right-hand wrist temperature (b) left-hand temperature.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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