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Rheumatology 2001; 40: 1384-1387
© 2001 British Society for Rheumatology

Original Papers

The use of portable radiometry to assess Raynaud's phenomenon: a practical alternative to thermal imaging

L. F. Cherkas, K. Howell1, L. Carter, C. M. Black1 and A. J. MacGregor

Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, London and
1 Department of Rheumatology, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK

Objectives. To compare the performance of a portable radiometer with thermal imaging and to assess the potential for radiometry to provide a practical alternative for assessing vascular responsiveness in Raynaud's phenomenon (RP).

Methods. Subjects comprised 18 patients with diagnosed RP and 19 non-RP subjects. A thermal imager (Starsight) and a portable radiometer (Cyclops) measured digital temperature at baseline and the subsequent drop and rise in temperature following a cold challenge test.

Results. The intra-class correlations between the two instruments for all three measures exceeded 80%. The overall performance of each instrument was almost the same, the Starsight thermal imager correctly classifying 84% of subjects as RP or non-RP and the Cyclops portable radiometer correctly classifying 86% of subjects. The sensitivity of the thermal imager was 83%, compared with 89% for the portable radiometer; the specificity of both instruments was 84%. The positive and negative predictive values of the thermal imager were 83 and 84% respectively, and those for the portable radiometer were 84 and 89%.

Conclusions. The two instruments performed equally well and the differences between them in their absolute measurements did not influence their ability to detect RP. Portable radiometry provides a practical, cheap, accurate and reliable alternative to thermal imaging and has the potential to be used in range of clinical and epidemiological settings.

KEY WORDS: Thermography, Radiometry, Raynaud's phenomenon, Classification, Cold challenge test.

Correspondence to: A. MacGregor, Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7EH, UK


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