Infrared thermography for the evaluation of adolescent and juvenile idiopathic scoliosis: A systematic review

This review focuses on evaluating the potential of infrared thermography as a non-invasive and radiation-free method for assessing alterations in Adolescent and Juvenile Idiopathic Scoliosis, a three-dimensional spine deformity. The researchers conducted a systematic review of articles published from 1990 to April 2022 in various databases. Only five articles met the criteria for inclusion in the review. The findings suggest that infrared thermography is a promising method to objectively assess the thermal differences in the muscles between the convex and concave sides of scoliosis. However, there are still concerns about using it as a diagnostic tool due to inconsistencies in research quality and data collection methods. The authors propose additional recommendations to improve the accuracy of thermal acquisition in scoliosis evaluation using infrared thermography.