Study of Raynaud´s phenomenon by means of infrared functional imaging

Infrared functional imaging was applied to the study of Raynaud´s Phenomenon obtaining a simultaneous assessment of the thermal properties of all five fingers of both hands of a group of patients with respect of a control group. The method is based on the use of high-resolution telethermography imaging and allows identification of objective parameters from the re-warming curves of finger immediately after a 2 min cold stress. The evaluation of the area under the temperature versus time curve, namely the temperature integral INT, provides a figure particularly effective in describing the thermal properties of the finger. 18 healthy volunteers, 20 Secondary Scleroderma and 20 Primary Raynaud´s Phenomenon patients were studied subsequently to clinical evaluation and nailfold capillaroscopy. This new approach highlighted a quite different behaviour between patients with Primary Raynaud´s Phenomenon and those with early diagnosed Systemic Sclerosis This new method, compared with other existing techniques, seems to be useful tool to discriminate between PRP and RP secondary to SSc.