Researchers (ref.) | Year | Study design | Participants | Key findings |
Skin temperature | ||||
Kolosovas-Machuca et al 3 | 2011 | Distribution of skin temperature in Mexican children. | 25 children | Reduced physiological variability in skin temperature of children, compared with similar study in adults. |
Symonds et al 4 | 2012 | Thermal imaging to assess age-related changes of skin temperature within the supraclavicular region co-locating with brown adipose tissue in healthy children. | 26 patients of all ages | Child cohort had significantly greater difference in skin temperature following cold challenge, compared with adolescents and adults (p<0.05). |
Fever screening | ||||
Selent et al 6 | 2013 | Mass screening for fever in children a comparison of 3 infrared thermal detection systems. | 855 children | Sensitivity 76.4%–83.7% and specificity of 79.4%–86.3%, across the three cameras, for detecting fever. |
Chan et al 7 | 2004 | Screening for fever by remote-sensing infrared thermography camera. | 176 patients of all ages | Sensitivity 83% and specificity 88%, for detecting fever by IRT. |
Fortuna et al 8 | 2010 | Accuracy of non-contact infrared thermometry versus rectal thermometry in young children evaluated in the emergency department for fever. | 200 children | IRT overestimated temperature in afebrile patients and underestimated temperature in febrile patients, compared with rectal thermometry (p<0.01). |
Monitoring vital signs | ||||
Heimann et al 9 | 2013 | Infrared thermography for detailed registration of thermoregulation in premature infants. | 10 premature infants | IRT showed significant increase in head and leg skin temperature, following 90 min of neonatal skin-to-skin care (p<0.05). |
Anderson et al 10 | 1990 | Use of thermographic imaging to study babies sleeping at home. | Five infants | IRT was used to measure skin temperature in sleeping infants, showing significant heat loss in the head and hands. |
Abbas et al 11 | 2011 | Neonatal non-contact respiratory monitoring based on real-time infrared thermography. | Seven premature infants | Mean respiration rate reported as 44.92 by IRT, compared with 43.77 by ECG measurement. |
Abbas et al 12 | 2014 | Intelligent neonatal monitoring based on a virtual thermal sensor. | 10 neonates | Face-tracking success rate ranged from 74% (p<0.01) to 89% (p<0.01). |
Al-Khalidi et al 13 | 2015 | Respiratory rate measurement in children using a thermal imaging camera. | 20 children | Respiratory monitoring by IRT and standard methods had a correlation coefficient of 0.994. |
Elphick et al 14 | 2015 | Thermal imaging method for measurement of respiratory rate. | 50 adults, 20 children | Respiratory monitoring by IRT and standard methods had a correlation coefficient of 0.88–0.998 in adults and 0.578–0.999 in children. |
Goldman et al 15 | 2012 | Nasal airflow and thoracoabdominal motion in children using infrared thermographic video processing. | 17 children | Respiratory monitoring by IRT and standard methods had a correlation coefficient of 0.976. IRT successfully identified patients with respiratory disease (p=0.0125). |
Rice et al 16 | 2010 | Infrared thermal imaging (thermography) of the abdomen in extremely low birthweight infants. | 13 infants | Infants with radiographic NEC had lower abdominal temperature than those without disease (p<0.05). |
Knobel et al 17 | 2011 | Thermoregulation and thermography in neonatal physiology and disease. | Review of the literature, assessing feasibility of IRT for recording temperature in ELBW infants. Authors concluded future research would benefit from IRT. | |
Trauma and wound healing | ||||
Sanchis-Sánchez et al 18 | 2015 | Infrared thermography is useful for ruling out fractures in paediatric emergencies. | 133 children | IRT had sensitivity 91% and specificity 88% for identifying fracture. |
Silva et al 19 | 2012 | Early assessment of the efficacy of digital infrared thermal imaging in pediatric extremity trauma. | 51 children | IRT matched the site of pain in 73% patients and matched 7 out of 11 fracture sites. |
Ćurković et al 20 | 2015 | Medical thermography (digital infrared thermal imaging) in paediatric forearm fractures – a pilot study. | 19 children | IRT found average temperature of the affected arm was 1.17°C higher than the unaffected arm 1 week after injury, reducing to 0.14°C difference 1 month after injury. |
Saxena et al 21 | 2008 | Infrared thermography: experience from a decade of pediatric imaging. | 483 children | 102 patients with haemangioma: positive temperature differential 1.5°C in rapidly progressing cases, but those that underwent complete recovery had a temperature differential of <0.5°C. Five patients with partial amputation showed temperature differential 2.5°C following surgery, reducing to 1.8°C after 48 hours. 30 patients affected by burns showed 2.8°C temperature differential following complete healing. Six patients with varicocele showed 4.1°C temperature differential in affected side. 61 patients with thoracic wall abnormalities showed temperature differential of 2.4°C across affected area. 42 patients with abscess, infection and gangrene: areas of abscess showed 3.6°C temperature differential across affected side. |
Morcate et al 22 | 1996 | Post-traumatic gaseous gangrene in childhood: a case report. | One infant | Case study of 2-year-old child with gas gangrene, where IRT helped identify the area of amputation required. |
Saxena et al 23 | 1999 | Thermography of Clostridium perfringens infection in childhood. | One infant | Same case study as Morcate et al. (1996). |
Medina-Preciado et al 24 | 2013 | Non-invasive determination of burn depth in children by digital infrared thermal imaging. | 13 children | IRT identified 100% of superficial and deep burns, whereas clinical assessment identified 83.33% of superficial and 42.85% of deep burns. |
Haemangioma and varicocele | ||||
Garcia-Romero et al 25 | 2014 | The role of infrared thermography in evaluation of proliferative infantile hemangiomas. Results of a pilot study. | 10 children | Average temperature differential across haemangioma was 2.5°F at baseline, reducing to −0.2°F after 6 months. |
Mohammad et al 26 | 2014 | Infrared thermography to assess proliferation and involution of infantile hemangiomas a prospective cohort study. | 42 children | Average temperature differential across haemangioma was 1.9°F at baseline, increasing to 2.5°F at 3 months, before decreasing to 0.2°F at 18.5 months. |
Iwata et al 27 | 1992 | Thermography in a child with varicocele. | One child | Preoperative temperature measurements, performed with IRT, showed affected scrotum to be 4°C warmer than the unaffected side. No temperature differential was found at 39 days or 12 months postoperatively. |
Dermatology | ||||
Martini et al 28 | 2002 | Juvenile-onset localized scleroderma activity detection by infrared thermography. | 40 children | IRT had sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 68% in detecting scleroderma. |
Castillo-Martínez et al 29 | 2013 | Use of digital infrared imaging in the assessment of childhood psoriasis. | One child | Case study of a 9-year-old boy with psoriatic lesions. IRT found increased skin temperature in areas affected by psoriasis. |
Kashiwagi et al 30 | 2013 | Thermography for evaluation of localized scleroderma treated with methotrexate and corticosteroid. | one child | Case study in a 9-year-old child with scleroderma. Skin temperature was higher around the affected skin, with IRT images showing reduced temperature following treatment but no quantitative measurements given. |
Diabetes mellitus | ||||
Zotter et al 31 | 2003 | Rewarming index of the lower leg assessed by infrared thermography in adolescents with type I diabetes mellitus. | 25 adolescents | IRT found different rewarming indexes in patients with diabetes, compared with age-matched controls. The first and fifth toe and the inner ankle produced statistically significant differences, following 10 min cold challenge testing (p<0.05). |
Joint inflammation | ||||
Lasanen et al 32 | 2015 | Thermal imaging in screening of joint inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis in children. | 58 children | Surface temperature of inflamed and non-inflamed ankle joints were statistically different (p=0.044). No significant difference was found across inflamed and non-inflamed knee joints. |
Neurology | ||||
Goetz et al 33 | 2005 | Thermography – a valuable tool to test hydrocephalus shunt patency. | 54 children | IRT identified hydrocephalus shunt patency in 88.9% of patients. |
Zurek et al 34 | 2008 | Influence of mechanical hippotherapy on skin temperature responses in lower limbs in children with cerebral palsy. | 16 adolescent children | IRT found no benefit in limb perfusion following intervention, in patients with cerebral palsy. |
Coben et al 35 | 2009 | Sensitivity and specificity of long wave infrared imaging for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. | 190 patients of all ages | IRT had a sensitivity of 65.71% and a specificity of 94%, in identifying individuals with ADHD. |
Ophthalmology | ||||
Kaercher et al 36 | 2015 | Diagnosis of x-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia by meibography and infrared thermography of the eye. | 14 adults, 12 children, 8 infants | IRT had a sensitivity of 66.7% in identifying XLHED, compared with 100% and 72.7% of two best alternative methods. |
Allergy screening | ||||
Clark et al 37 | 2007 | Facial thermography is a sensitive and specific method for assessing food challenge outcome. | 24 children | Positive food challenge in patients with egg allergy resulted in median nasal temperature differential 1.7°C higher than that of the control (p<0.01). IRT identified outcome of food challenge with 91% sensitivity and 100% specificity. |
Clark et al 38 | 2012 | Thermographic imaging during nasal peanut challenge may be useful in the diagnosis of peanut allergy. | 16 children | In children with peanut allergy, statistically significant mean temperature increase of 0.9°C (95% CI 0.34°C to 1.45°C) observed following nasal food challenge, compared with placebo. |
Anaesthetics | ||||
Cheema et al 39 | 1994 | Thermography: a noninvasive assessment of pediatric thoracic epidural blocks. | One child | Case study of an 8-year-old girl undergoing thoracic epidural block. IRT indicated clearly delineated temperature change of 0.9°C, from the dermatomes of T4 to T10, suggesting the region of epidural blockade. |
IRT, infrared thermography; NEC, necrotising enterocolitis; ELBW, extremely low birth weight.