Clinical Thermography in Arizona
What Exactly IS Thermal Imaging or Clinical Thermography?
Our Clinical Thermography clinic in Phoenix Arizona offers simple test of physiology that relies on the sympathetic nerve control of skin blood flow and the ability of the sympathetic nervous system to respond to and react to pain, pathology, injury or dysfunction anywhere in the body. While other diagnostics such as ultrasound, radiography and mammography show the body's structure or anatomy, DITI (digital infrared thermal imaging) is unique in that it shows physiologic and metabolic processes.
Medical DITI enables the examiner to visualize and quantify changes in skin surface temperature. An infrared scanning device is used to convert infrared radiation emitted from the skin surface into electrical impulses that are visualized in color on a monitor. This visual image graphically maps the body temperature and is referred to as a thermogram. The spectrum of colors indicates an increase or decrease in the amount of infrared radiation being emitted from the body surface. Since there is a high degree of thermal symmetry in the normal body, subtle abnormal temperature asymmetries can be easily identified.
How Does Thermography Work?
These thermal patterns displayed in the thermograms are as unique as fingerprints. In healthy people there is a symmetrical thermal pattern that is consistent and reproducible for that individual. Injury or disease will result in thermal asymmetries. DITI, using our state of the art Flir digital thermal cameras, will record these thermal patterns in a thermograph in precise detail with a temperature sensitivity of 0.01°C.
Medical DITI is a monitor of thermal abnormalities present in a number of diseases and physical injuries. It is used as an aid for diagnosis and prognosis, as well as therapy follow up and rehabilitation monitoring, within clinical fields that include Rheumatology, Neurology, Physiotherapy, Sports Medicine, Oncology, Pediatrics, Orthopedics and many others.
Appointments for standard thermal exams, from breast scans to full body scans, take on average about 30 to 45 minutes with the first 10 to 15 minutes acclimating to the scan room temperature of 68 to 72 degrees.
Medical DITI is the only method available to visualize and assess pain and pathology anywhere in the body. Results obtained through thermography are totally objective and show excellent correlation with other diagnostic tests.