Comparison between thermal recovery in women with Raynaud’s Phenomenon and not diagnosed women using thermography

Thermography detects the infrared radiation emanated from bodies and transduces it in electrical analog signal. It has application as a complementary exam in several medical segments, including the reheating study to detect diseases like Raynaud's Phenomenon (RP). In this way, the aim of this study is to compare the heating behavior of the RP women and not diagnosed (ND) women for selection of diagnosis criteria. This retrospective study was undertaken in the city of Curitiba, Brazil. For the study, twenty-four volunteer women, with the age range of 30-70 years, were taken to participate of a survey, 12 of them have the clinical diagnostic of Secondary Raynauld's Phenomenon, and twelve women were not diagnosed. Volunteers answered an anamnesis and had the central body temperature measured. They were oriented to keep the hands free and to do not touch anything during 15 minutes for acclimatization. Then, the hands were immersed for 60 seconds in a container with water at 10 °C. New pictures were taken every five minutes during twenty minutes after the immersion. The heating curve of the right hand shows that RP women's hands are colder than ND women and are slower to reheat the temperature after cold stress. The ring (fourth finger) has a linear behavior in both hands. It was the coldest one and the slowest to reheat. Statistical difference was observed in critical times of reheating at 15 and 20 minutes after the cold stress. These results show that this finger could become a reference in studies to determine cutting points and to facilitate the clinical diagnosis of RP.