Thermography as an examination method in patients with venous pathology of the lower extremities
G.V. Yarovenko

Samara State Medical University

Aim: to study the change of infrared radiation for the examination of patients with phlebothrombosis, post-thrombophlebitic disease, and lower limb varicose vein disease.
Patients and Methods: thermography in patients with venous pathology was performed in conjunction with the evaluation of the clinical picture and data of Color Flow Mapping (CFM). The thermograms of the lower extremities of 25 healthy persons and 32 patients with deep vein thrombosis of the lower extremities were studied. Thermographic studies of the lower extremities were performed in 50 patients with post-thrombophlebitic disease at the stage of occlusion and recanalization and 142 patients with varicose disease at the stage of decompensation.
Results: on thermograms with phlebothrombosis, a zone of severe hyperthermia was visualized on the lower leg if the pathological process was in the popliteal vein and the entire limb if the process was localized in the iliofemoral segment. The hyperthermia level ranged from 39 to 40.8 °C. In patients with phlebothrombosis, there was a slowdown in lymph flow, to the extent of a blockade of regional lymph node basins. Indicators of the extremities’ minimum temperature in patients with lower extremity post-thrombophlebitic disease significantly increased compared with those in healthy people. On thermograms in patients with the varicose disease, changes in the maximum temperature were noted in all segments of the extremities. On thigh, on either side of the lower and upper half of the lower leg, the maximum temperature increased by more than 2 °C, in the lower half of the thigh on either side — more than 1.7 °C.
Conclusion: thermography makes it possible to identify not detected by visual examination or ill-defined pathological changes, which is of great importance for the examination in patients with the vein disease of the lower extremities.

Key words: thermographic study, thermography, thermogram, phlebothrombosis, post-thrombophlebitic disease, varicose 
disease.
For citation: Yarovenko G.V. Thermography as an examination method in patients with venous pathology of the lower extremities // RMJ. 2018. № 6(II). P. 50–53.