Thermography and its use in diagnosis of active sacroiliac ankylosing spondylitis

Abstract EN

The need for creating a new and simple method for the assessment of disease activity in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) arised as a result of the many obstacles encountered in the current methods of disease activity assessment.

It is the objective of this study to investigate the value of sacroiliac thermography in the assessment of disease activity in AS.

Clinical, laboratory and sacroiliac thermographic indices were done for 27 patients with AS.

Clinical disease activity was demonstrated in 13 patients while the other 14 were inactive.

The mean sacroiliac thermographic index was significantly higher in active ankylosing spondylitis group than either the inactive or the control group.

Furthermore, significant correlations were observed between thermorgraphic indices and other parameters of disease activity.

Thus, it is feasible to conclude that, sacroiliac thermographic index-as determined by contact thermography-can be considered as a sensitive objective method for assessing disease activity in ankylosing spondylitis