Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Infrared Thermography in Exercise Physiology: The Dawning of Exercise Radiomics

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Sports Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Infrared thermography (IRT) is a non-invasive tool to measure the body surface radiation temperature (Tsr). IRT is an upcoming technology as a result of recent advancements in camera lenses, detector technique and data processing capabilities. The purpose of this review is to determine the potential and applicability of IRT in the context of dynamic measurements in exercise physiology. We searched PubMed and Google Scholar to identify appropriate articles, and conducted six case experiments with a high-resolution IRT camera (640 × 480 pixels) for complementary illustration. Ten articles for endurance exercise, 12 articles for incremental exercise testing and 11 articles for resistance exercise were identified. Specific Tsr changes were detected for different exercise types. Close to physical exertion or during prolonged exercise six recent studies described “tree-shaped” or “hyper-thermal” surface radiation pattern (Psr) without further specification. For the first time, we describe the Tsr and Psr dynamics and how these may relate to physiological adaptations during exercise and illustrate the differential responsiveness of Psr to resistance or endurance exercise. We discuss how bias related to individual factors, such as skin blood flow, or related to environmental factors could be resolved by innovative technological approaches. We specify why IRT seems to be increasingly capable of differentiating physiological traits relevant for exercise physiologists from various forms of environmental, technical and individual bias. For refined analysis, it will be necessary to develop and implement standardized and accurate pattern recognition technology capable of differentiating exercise modalities to support the evaluation of thermographic data by means of radiomics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lahiri BB, Bagavathiappan S, Jayakumar T, Philip J. Medical applications of infrared thermography: a review. Infrared Phys Technol. 2012;55:221–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hildebrandt C, Zeilberger K, John Ring EF, Raschner C. The application of medical infrared thermography in sports medicine. An Int Perspect Top Sport Med Sport Inj. 2012, pp 257–274. Available from: http://www.intechopen.com/books/an-international-perspective-on-topics-in-sportsmedicine-and-sportsinjury/the-application-of-medical-infrared-thermography-in-sports-medicine.

  3. Lasanen R. Infrared thermography in the evaluation of skin temperature: Applications in musculoskeletal conditions. 2015;103.

  4. Fernández-Cuevas I, Bouzas Marins JC, Arnáiz Lastras J, Gómez Carmona PM, Piñonosa Cano S, García-Concepción MÁ, et al. Classification of factors influencing the use of infrared thermography in humans: a review. Infrared Phys Technol. 2015;71:28–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Nybo L, Rasmussen P, Sawka, MN. Performance in the heat-Physiological factors of importance for hyperthermia-induced fatigue. Compr Physiol. 2014;4:657–89.

  6. Gillies RJ, Kinahan PE, Hricak H. Radiomics: images are more than pictures, they are data. Radiology. 2016;278:563–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Tanda G. Total body skin temperature of runners during treadmill exercise: a pilot study. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2018;131:1967–77.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Balci GA, Basaran T, Colakoglu M. Analysing visual pattern of skin temperature during submaximal and maximal exercises. Infrared Phys Technol. 2016;74:57–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Fernandes A de A, Amorim PR dos S, Brito CJ, Sillero-Quintana M, Marins JCB. Regional skin temperature response to moderate aerobic exercise measured by infrared thermography. Asian J Sports Med. 2016;7:1–8.

  10. Korman P, Straburzyńska-Lupa A, Kusy K, Kantanista A, Zieliński J. Changes in body surface temperature during speed endurance work-out in highly-trained male sprinters. Infrared Phys Technol. 2016;78:209–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Priego Quesada JI, Martínez N, Salvador Palmer R, Psikuta A, Annaheim S, Rossi RM, et al. Effects of the cycling workload on core and local skin temperatures. Exp Therm Fluid Sci. 2016;77:91–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Tanda G. The use of infrared thermography to detect the skin temperature response to physical activity. J Phys Conf Ser. 2015;655.

  13. Adamczyk JG, Educ P, Bia D. Usage of thermography as indirect non- invasive method of evaluation of physical efficiency. Pilot study. Pedagog Psychol Med Biol Probl Phys Train Sport. 2014;90–5.

  14. Chudecka M, Lubkowska A. Temperature changes of selected body’s surfaces of handball players in the course of training estimated by thermovision, and the study of the impact of physiological and morphological factors on the skin temperature. J Therm Biol. 2010;35:379–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Zontak A, Sideman S, Verbitsky O, Beyar R. Dynamic thermography: analysis of hand temperature during exercise. Ann Biomed Eng. 1998;26:988–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Torii M, Yamasaki M, Sasaki T, Nakayama H. Fall in skin temperature of exercising man. Br J Sports Med. 1992;26:29–32.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Trecroci A, Formenti D, Ludwig N, Gargano M, Bosio A, Rampinini E, et al. Bilateral asymmetry of skin temperature is not related to bilateral asymmetry of crank torque during an incremental cycling exercise to exhaustion. PeerJ. 2018;6:e4438.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Priego Quesada JI, Sampaio LT, Bini RR, Rossato M, Cavalcanti V. Multifactorial cycling performance of cyclists and non-cyclists and their effect on skin temperature. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2017;127:1479–89.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Ludwig N, Trecroci A, Gargano M, Formenti D, Bosio A, Rampinini E, et al. Thermography for skin temperature evaluation during dynamic exercise: a case study on an incremental maximal test in elite male cyclists. Appl Opt. 2016;55:D126. A.

  20. Duc S, Arfaoui A, Polidori G, Bertucci W. Efficiency and thermography in cycling during a graded exercise test. J Exerc Sport Orthop. 2015;2:01–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Priego Quesada JI, Carpes FP, Bini RR, Salvador Palmer R, Pérez-Soriano P, Cibrián Ortiz de Anda RM. Relationship between skin temperature and muscle activation during incremental cycle exercise. J Therm Biol. 2015;48:28–35.

  22. Arfaoui A, Bertucci WM, Letellier T. Thermoregulation during incremental exercise in masters cycling. J Sci Cycl. 2014;3:32–40.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Akimov EB, Son’kin VD. Skin temperature and lactate threshold during muscle work in athletes. Hum Physiol. 2011;37:621–8.

  24. Merla A, Mattei PA, Di Donato L, Romani GL. Thermal imaging of cutaneous temperature modifications in runners during graded exercise. Ann Biomed Eng. 2010;38:158–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Akimov EB, Andreev RS, Kalenov YN, Kirdin AA, Son’kin VD, Tonevitsky AG. The human thermal portrait and its relations with aerobic working capacity and the blood lactate level. Hum Physiol. 2010;36:447–56.

  26. Akimov EB, Andreev RS, Arkov VV, Kirdin AA, Saryanc VV, Sonkin VD, et al. Thermal “portrait” of sportsmen with different aerobic capacity. Acta Kinesiol Univ Tartu. 2012;14:7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Priego Quesada JI, Lucas-Cuevas AG, Salvador Palmer R, Pérez-Soriano P, Cibrián Ortiz De Anda RM. Definition of the thermographic regions of interest in cycling by using a factor analysis. Infrared Phys Technol 2016;75:180–6.

  28. Weigert M, Nitzsche N, Kunert F, Lösch C, Baumgärtel L, Schulz H. Acute exercise-associated skin surface temperature changes after resistance training with different exercise intensities. Int J Kinesiol Sport Sci. 2018;6:12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Silva YA, Santos BH, Andrade PR, Santos HH, Moreira DG, Sillero-Quintana M, et al. Skin temperature changes after exercise and cold water immersion. Sport Sci Health. 2017;13:195–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Sillero-Quintana M, Brito CJ, Adamczyk JG, Estal-Martínez A, Escamilla-Galindo VL, Arnaiz-Lastras J. Skin temperature response to unilateral training measured with infrared thermography. J Exerc Rehabil. 2017;13:526–34.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Neves EB, Cunha RM, Rosa C, Antunes NS, Felisberto IMV, Vilaça-Alves J, et al. Correlation between skin temperature and heart rate during exercise and recovery, and the influence of body position in these variables in untrained women. Infrared Phys Technol. 2016;75:70–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Formenti D, Ludwig N, Trecroci A, Gargano M, Michielon G, Caumo A, et al. Dynamics of thermographic skin temperature response during squat exercise at two different speeds. J Therm Biol. 2016;59:58–63.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Neves EB, Moreira TR, Lemos R, Vilaça-Alves J, Rosa C, Reis VM. Using skin temperature and muscle thickness to assess muscle response to strength training. Rev Bras Med do Esporte. 2015;21:350–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Adamczyk JG, Boguszewski D, Siewierski M. Thermographic evaluation of lactate level in capillary blood during post-exercise recovery. Kinesiology. 2014;46:186–93.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Formenti D, Ludwig N, Gargano M, Gondola M, Dellerma N, Caumo A, et al. Thermal imaging of exercise-associated skin temperature changes in trained and untrained female subjects. Ann Biomed Eng. 2013;41:863–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Al-Nakhli HH, Petrofsky JS, Laymon MS, Berk LS. The Use of thermal infrared imaging to detect delayed onset muscle soreness. J Vis Exp. 2012;1–9.

  37. Ferreira JJA, Mendonça LCS, Nunes LAO, Andrade Filho ACC, Rebelatto JR, Salvini TF. Exercise-associated thermographic changes in young and elderly subjects. Ann Biomed Eng. 2008;36:1420–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Čoh M, Širok B. Use of the thermovision method in sport training. Phys Educ Sport. 2007;5:85–94.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Just TP, Cooper IR, DeLorey DS. Sympathetic vasoconstriction in skeletal muscle: adaptations to exercise training. Exerc Sport Sci Rev. 2016;44:137–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. O’Leary D, Silva BM, Marongiu E, Crisafulli A, Piepoli MF, Nobrega ACL. Neural regulation of cardiovascular response to exercise: role of central command and peripheral afferents. Biomed Res Int. 2014;2014:1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Charkoudian N. Mechanisms and modifiers of reflex induced cutaneous vasodilation and vasoconstriction in humans. J Appl Physiol. 2010;109:1221–8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Ootsuka Y, Tanaka M. Control of cutaneous blood flow by central nervous system. Temperature. 2015;2:392–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Williamson JW. Autonomic responses to exercise: where is central command? Auton Neurosci Basic Clin. 2015;188:3–4.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Gonzales-Alonso, J. Symposium Report. Human thermoregulation and the cardiovascular system. A key but little understood function of the cardiovascular system is to exchange heat between. 2012;3:340–6.

  45. Demachi K, Yoshida T, Kume M, Tsuji M, Tsuneoka H. The influence of internal and skin temperatures on active cutaneous vasodilation under different levels of exercise and ambient temperatures in humans. Int J Biometeorol. 2013;57:589–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Kellogg DL, Johnson JM, Kosiba WA. Control of internal temperature threshold for active cutaneous vasodilation by dynamic exercise. J Appl Physiol. 2017;71:2476–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Itoh Y, Arai K. Use of recovery-enhanced thermography to localize cutaneous perforators. Ann Plast Surg. 1995;507–11.

  48. Narushima M, Yamasoba T, Iida T, Matsumoto Y, Yamamoto T, Yoshimatsu H, et al. Pure skin perforator flaps. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2018;142:351e–60e.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  49. Saint-Cyr M, Wong C, Schaverien M, Mojallal A, Rohrich RJ. The perforasome theory: vascular anatomy and clinical implications. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2009;124:1529–44.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Taylor GI, Corlett RJ, Dhar SC, Ashton MW. The anatomical (angiosome) and clinical territories of cutaneous perforating arteries: development of the concept and designing safe flaps. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2011;127:1447–59.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Venus M, Waterman J, McNab I. Basic physiology of the skin. Surgery. 2011;29:471–4.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Braverman IM. The cutaneous microcirculation. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc. 2000;5:3–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Camargo CP, Gemperli R. Endothelium and cardiovascular diseases. Vascular biology and clinical syndromes. Chapter 47-Endothelial function in skin microcirculation. 2018, pp 673–679. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-812348-5.00047-7.

  54. Liu WM, Maivelett J, Kato GJ, Taylor VIJG, Yang WC, Liu YC, et al. Reconstruction of thermographic signals to map perforator vessels in humans. Quant Infrared Thermogr J. 2012;9:123–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Fry AC, Kraemer WJ. Resistance exercise overtraining and overreaching: neuroendocrine responses. Sports Med. 1997;23:106–29.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Zaproudina N, Varmavuo V, Airaksinen O, Närhi M. Reproducibility of infrared thermography measurements in healthy individuals. Physiol Meas. 2008;29:515–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Tse J, Rand C, Carroll M, Charnay A, Gordon S, Morales B, et al. Determining peripheral skin temperature: subjective versus objective measurements. Acta Paediatr Int J Paediatr. 2016;105:e126–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Fernández-Cuevas I, Marins JC, Carmona PG, García-Concepción MA, Lastras JA, Quintana MS. Reliability and reproducibility of skin temperature of overweight subjects by an infrared thermography software designed for human beings. Thermol Int. 2012;22:130–7.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Ring FJ, Ammer K, Wiecek B, Plassmann P, Jones CD, Jung A, et al. Quality assurance for thermal imaging systems in medicine. Thermol Int. 2007;17:103–6.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Micro-Epsilon Messtechnik. Mehr Präzision. Grundlagen der berührungslosen Temperaturmessung. 2017;4–5.

  61. Tattersall GJ. Infrared thermography: a non-invasive window into thermal physiology. Comp Biochem Physiol Part A Mol Integr Physiol. 2016;202:78–98.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  62. Bach AJE, Stewart IB, Disher AE, Costello JT. A comparison between conductive and infrared devices for measuring mean skin temperature at rest, during exercise in the heat, and recovery. PLoS One. 2015;10:1–13.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  63. Shimazaki Y, Yoshida A, Yamamoto T. Thermal responses and perceptions under distinct ambient temperature and wind conditions. J Therm Biol. 2015;49–50:1–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Carlos J, Marins B, Formenti D, Magno C, Costa A, De Andrade A, et al. Infrared physics and technology circadian and gender differences in skin temperature in militaries by thermography. 2015;71:322–8.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Neves EB, Moreira TR, Lemos RJ, Vilaça-Alves J, Rosa C, Reis VM. The influence of subcutaneous fat in the skin temperature variation rate during exercise. Rev Bras Eng Biomed. 2015;31:307–12.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Neves EB, Salamunes ACC, de Oliveira RM, Stadnik AMW. Effect of body fat and gender on body temperature distribution. J Therm Biol. 2017;70:1–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Chudecka M, Lubkowska A. Thermal maps of young women and men. Infrared Phys Technol. 2015;69:81–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Smith CJ, Havenith G. Body mapping of sweating patterns in male athletes in mild exercise-induced hyperthermia. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011;111:1391–404.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  69. Taylor NAS, Tipton MJ, Kenny GP. Considerations for the measurement of core, skin and mean body temperatures. J Therm Biol. 2014;46:72–101.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  70. Neves EB. The effect of body fat percentage and body fat distribution on skin surface temperature with infrared thermography. J Therm Biol. 2017;66:1–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  71. Moreira DG, Costello JT, Brito CJ, Adamczyk JG, Ammer K, Bach AJE, et al. Thermographic imaging in sports and exercise medicine: a Delphi study and consensus statement on the measurement of human skin temperature. J Therm Biol. 2017;69:155–62.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  72. Maniar N, Bach AJE, Stewart IB, Costello JT. The effect of using different regions of interest on local and mean skin temperature. J Therm Biol. 2015;49–50:33–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Fournet D, Redortier B, Havenith G. Institutional Repository A method for whole-body skin temperature mapping in humans. Thermol Int. 2012;22:157–9.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Duarte A, Carrão L, Espanha M, Viana T, Freitas D, Bártolo P, et al. Segmentation algorithms for thermal images. Proc Technol. 2014;16:1560–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Formenti D, Ludwig N, Rossi A, Trecroci A, Alberti G, Gargano M, et al. Skin temperature evaluation by infrared thermography: comparison of two image analysis methods during the nonsteady state induced by physical exercise. Infrared Phys Technol. 2017;81:32–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  76. Barcelos EZ, Caminhas WM, Ribeiro E, Pimenta EM, Palhares RM. A combined method for segmentation and registration for an advanced and progressive evaluation of thermal images. Sensors (Switzerland). 2014;14:21950–67.

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  77. Unger M, Markfort M, Halama D, Chalopin C. Automatic detection of perforator vessels using infrared thermography in reconstructive surgery. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2019;14(3):501–7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11548-018-1892-6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  78. Liu G, Jia W, Sun V, Choi B, Chen Z. High-resolution imaging of microvasculature in human skin in-vivo with optical coherence tomography. Opt Express. 2012;20:7694.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  79. Cheng VS, Bai J, Chen Y. A high-resolution three-dimensional far-infrared thermal and true-color imaging system for medical applications. Med Eng Phys. 2009;31:1173–81.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  80. Deng ZS, Liu J. Mathematical modeling of temperature mapping over skin surface and its implementation in thermal disease diagnostics. Comput Biol Med. 2004;34:495–521.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  81. Cifuentes IJ, Dagnino BL, Salisbury MC, Perez ME, Ortega C, Maldonado D. Augmented reality and dynamic infrared thermography for perforator mapping in the anterolateral thigh. Arch Plast Surg. 2018;45:284–8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  82. Rathmann P, Chalopin C, Halama D, Giri P, Meixensberger J, Lindner D. Dynamic infrared thermography (DIRT) for assessment of skin blood perfusion in cranioplasty: a proof of concept for qualitative comparison with the standard indocyanine green video angiography (ICGA). Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2018;13:479–90.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  83. Zhang H, Casaseca-de-la-Higuera P, Luo C, Wang Q, Kitchin M, Parmley A, et al. Systematic infrared image quality improvement using deep learning based techniques. 2016;10008:100080P.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants for their voluntary participation in the case experiments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sports Medicine, Rehabilitation and Disease Prevention, Faculty of Social Science, Media and Sport, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Albert Schweitzer Straße 22, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Barlo Hillen, Daniel Pfirrmann & Perikles Simon

  2. OptoPrecision GmbH, Auf der Höhe 15, 28357, Bremen, Germany

    Markus Nägele

Authors
  1. Barlo Hillen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Daniel Pfirrmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Markus Nägele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Perikles Simon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Perikles Simon.

Ethics declarations

Funding

No sources of funding were used to assist in the preparation of this article.

Conflict of interest

Barlo Hillen, Daniel Pfirrmann, Markus Nägele, and Perikles Simon declare that they have no conflicts of interest relevant to the content of this review.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (MP4 135374 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (MOV 14477 kb)

Supplementary material 3 (MOV 18573 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hillen, B., Pfirrmann, D., Nägele, M. et al. Infrared Thermography in Exercise Physiology: The Dawning of Exercise Radiomics. Sports Med 50, 263–282 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01210-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01210-w

Search

Navigation