Animals (Feb 2024)

Application of Infrared Thermography in the Rehabilitation of Patients in Veterinary Medicine

  • Alejandro Casas-Alvarado,
  • Asahi Ogi,
  • Dina Villanueva-García,
  • Julio Martínez-Burnes,
  • Ismael Hernández-Avalos,
  • Adriana Olmos-Hernández,
  • Patricia Mora-Medina,
  • Adriana Domínguez-Oliva,
  • Daniel Mota-Rojas

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14050696
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 5
p. 696

Abstract

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Infrared Thermography (IRT) has become an assistance tool in medicine and is used to noninvasively evaluate heat elimination during and after inflammatory processes or during the recovery period. However, its application in veterinary patients undergoing physiotherapy is a field that requires deep research. This review aims to analyze the application of IRT in the monitoring of animal physiotherapy, using the thermal changes that are present in patients undergoing gait or lameness issues (e.g., inflammation, pain, increased local temperature) as a neurobiological basis. Rehabilitation techniques such as acupuncture, physical therapies, thermotherapy, photo-biomodulation, and electrostimulation have been reported to have an anti-inflammatory effect that decreases the amount of local heat production, which is heat that can be recorded with IRT. Therefore, IRT could be used as a complementary tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy, and it is suggested that further studies evaluate the accuracy, sensibility, and sensitivity of IRT.

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