The use of thermography in the pediatric patient. A new diagnostic tool

Our plain-English summary of The use of thermography in the pediatric patient. A new diagnostic tool, by C. Farrell, A.E. O'Hara (Clinical Pediatrics, 1972).

The study

• Authors: C. Farrell, A.E. O'Hara
• Journal: Clinical Pediatrics
• Published: 1972;11(12):673-83
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article described eleven children with benign and malignant diseases examined by thermography, a scan of skin heat. It was not a study of asbestos; no patient's asbestos exposure was mentioned. In Case 6, an 18-year-old female had a 5 x 10 cm firm mass in the back of the left thigh. Thermography showed a large warm area with multiple 'vessel-like' structures, which the authors took to suggest a malignant tumor. Biopsy of the mass led to a diagnosis of mesothelioma. The patient and family refused therapy; the patient died nine months later with multiple lung metastases. Other scans showed patterns the authors linked to an abscess, a hemangioma and a bone cyst. In two osteosarcoma cases, warm areas appeared before X-rays confirmed bone metastases. In a Ewing's sarcoma case, they appeared while X-rays were negative; the article links them to soft tissue swelling on examination, which the case history dates two weeks later. The authors concluded thermography was a valuable, inexpensive aid without exposure to ionizing radiation. They noted that artifacts, patient movement and fever could limit it.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case series (eleven illustrative pediatric cases)
• Who was studied: Eleven children with various benign and malignant diseases, ranging from a newborn to an 18-year-old
• Exposure: No asbestos or other exposure was studied. The article concerns thermography (Smith-Pyroscan infrared scanning) as a diagnostic method. No exposure history is given for the mesothelioma case.
• Main results:
  • Case 6: an 18-year-old female had a 5 x 10 cm firm, irregular mass attached to muscle in the left posterior thigh.
  • Case 6: the thermogram showed a large warm area with multiple vessel-like structures, which the authors read as representative of a malignant tumor. Excisional biopsy led to a diagnosis of mesothelioma.
  • Case 6: the patient and family refused therapy. The patient died nine months later with multiple pulmonary metastatic nodules and a massive increase of the primary lesion.
  • Cases 9 and 10 (osteosarcoma): thermography showed metastatic bone disease before radiographs confirmed it.
  • Case 8 (Ewing's sarcoma): thermography showed warm areas thought to be metastases while radiographs were negative. The case history reports soft tissue masses on physical examination two weeks later.
  • Case 8: a figure caption states that the warm sternoclavicular area corresponded to soft tissue swelling noted on physical examination, without giving the date of that examination.
  • Case 4: in a benign bone cyst, the thermogram showed an avascular circular area without vessel formation.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that thermography is a valuable diagnostic tool alongside clinical and radiographic findings, and also when radiography shows little. They described it as an inexpensive, simple adjunct without patient exposure to ionizing radiation.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Unlike in X-ray examination, patient movement cannot be stopped by changing technical factors.
  • Artifacts can come from uneven cooling, clothing or other objects, or heat from the attendants' bodies or hands.
  • Fever raises body heat and makes interpretation difficult.
  • In Case 4, only one projection was available, so the depth of the lesion could not be determined.

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