Aweda M. A., Adeyomoye A. O. and Abe G. A.
This paper presents the results of thermographic study of thyroid dysfunctions as an alternative clinical diagnostic technique. 37 patients confirmed with thyroid diseases and 16 volunteers as control at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital Nigeria were studied. Cytological methods were used for confirming the thyroid disease while the images of skin temperature maps were obtained using the FLIR Infrared Cam Flip (USA) infrared camera operated in self automatic calibrated mode. The thermographs were compared with ultrasonographs. The mean temperature ± standard deviation of 36.63 ± 0.56 °C was obtained for hyperthyroid, 34.93 ± 0.32 °C for hypothyroid and 35.76 ± 0.49 °C for control groups respectively. There were variations in the mean skin temperatures of malignant (37.63 ± 0.29 °C) and benign (36.21 ± 0.73 °C) diseases. The results show that thermography could be relevant and if used in combination with other imaging modality, could play a vital role in the diagnosis of thyroid diseases. This study also confirmed that female are more susceptible to thyroid diseases than male and that hyperthyroidism is commoner than hypothyroidism.
