Thermography screening of thyroid gland: how to distinguish health from pathology

This research is organized to investigate if the thermal gradient (T_grad) (difference between temperature maximum and minimum in the region of interest over thyroid gland on neck thermogramm) could be a marker of normal/ abnormal thyroid function and, if so, find out the cut-off value and check it screening validity.

Materials and methods. Thermography examination was performed using a TVS-300 med (S-Petersburg, Russia) thermal imaging camera with a resolution of 384 × 288 pixels and sensitivity was <0.04 °C according to European Association of Thermology standards. Anterior neck thermografic images were performed and collected in cloud database, where, by mean of program tools, region of interest were marked and T_grad calculated. Totally 1025 pts with different thyroid pathology (group 1: female 944, age 15–90 (55,4±15,8), male 81, age 14–86 (53,6±18,8)), and 395 healthy persons (group 2: male 324 age 17–26 (21,8±4,4), female 71 age 16–70т (34,6±12,7)) were investigated. To check the quality of the model another 314 persons (18 male and 296 female) were studied in screening mode.

Results. Calculated T_grad value was 1,65±0,53 °C, Ме 1,53(1,24; 1,90) and 0,98±0,23 °C, Me 1,01(0,82; 1,15) for group 1 and 2 accordingly. By mean of binary logistic regression analysis we found good correlation between T_grad value and presence/absence of thyroid pathology: significance level р<0,0001, χ² = 838,84, df = 1, β 0 = 9,984, β 1 = –9,033. Area under curve in ROC analysis was 0,922 (95 % CI 0,908; 0,935), р<0,001; optimal cut off value for T_grad was 1,21 °C for maximal sensitivity (79,8 %) and specificity (83,3 %). In screening evaluation, according to optimal cut-off value 1,2 °C for T_grad , 82,2 % of cases were classified correctly: true-positive and true-negative results were achieved in 258 from 314 pts.

Conclusion. Thermography test, based on T_grad value calculation, could help to distinguish persons with normal and abnormal function of thyroid gland.

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